A Few of My Favorite Things*

Thought it might be fun to mention some of the things that have been making me smile lately:

Our Christmas tree. It was a saga hauling it back to the flat (well, only because the Mr. made it that way). See, we had discussed and agreed in advance that we would take a taxi from the place we were buying it back home again. Only, at the last moment, the Mr. and the tree salesman are chatting and lifting it and the Mr. says “I think we can carry it back.” Uh, excuse me? So the Mr. and I start to carry that dang thing back in the freezing cold, snow and ice and I start to seethe. What kind of loony idea is this, anyway, to haul this back home by carrying it?! So then the Mr. grabs it, says “I can do it – I can do everything” (that’s him doing his martyr thing – he likes to do it a lot) and he begins hauling it on his shoulders. So I strap on his backpack of groceries to my chest, tighten the straps of my backpack, and become the human grocery cart. But he was carrying a tree and he still made it back to the flat before I did. Holly+ice=walking like a granny. No joke.

This is the best tea ever. It’s herbal, so you can drink it any time day or night, and it’s sweet. It’s seriously like drinking a big cup of sugary candy goodness. Before we moved away from the UK, I bought like 10 boxes of the stuff, but I think they might ship internationally. I sure hope so, but I won’t have to investigate for a while.

A hat the Mr.’s sister made by hand and gave him years ago, and I now wear just about every day. The Mr.’s sister studied textile design and is a very talented artist. She created this hat during her studies, and I tried it on and fell in love. It’s made with a reflective material of some sort, so it also gets a big thumbs up for safety first as you can’t tell during the day, but headlights at night light it up like a Christmas tree. It’s really warm and so stylish and unique – I love it!

Maultaschen in a soup, but mine was better!

I discovered that I could buy vegetarian maultaschen in a packet at the grocery store. For those unfamiliar, maultaschen are a type of German dumpling that is usually filled with meat, but sometimes you can find vegetarian versions, too. I always order vegetarian maultaschen at our favorite restaurant in Würzburg, but now I’m super excited that I can eat them at home without going to the hassle of making them from scratch. I added a couple of dumplings to a vegetarian soup that I had made the night before and it was de-lish. (I’m not sure whether I can call the soup I make homemade or not. I cut up and prepare all the vegetables, but I use a pre-made vegetable stock for seasoning. I like to think of it as one of few dishes I make from scratch, but maybe dumping cut vegetables into a pot and boiling them for a half hour and considering that a culinary masterpiece is a bit of a stretch. But it tastes good.)

Christmas movies & music. Come November, I stop listening to just about everything except Christmas tunes. I have a fairly decent collection of the classics and mostly old crooners singing them.  My new favorite radio station here in Germany is Klassik Radio. They play an interesting mixture of classical, instrumental music from film soundtracks, and even chill out electronica. They also play a lot of choral and instrumental Christmas music at the moment. And I’ve been steadily working my way through the Christmas movies in my home collection. So far I’ve watched Elf, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Looking forward to Miracle on 34th Street, Love Actually, A Christmas Story and The Snowman. What’s missing from my list and is your favorite holiday film?

This was fun. I might need to make this a recurring post!

*I came up with this title this time. I’ll resume stealing from my source soon again.