Moving the Clunns

I broke two (!) toes yesterday.

Ow.

Owowowowow!


ETA: I'm back from the orthopedist. He couldn't tape the toes together because they are next to each other. He was so nice not to put my foot into a cast but to give me a prescription for some sort of shoe thingy that will keep my toes safe and sound.

My poor foot is all black and blue...

Picture credit: http://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article1507632/Berlin_Rio_New_York_So_feierte_die_Welt_Silvester.html


May 2012 be good to all of you!


The fireworks are incredible this year. So incredible that I can't go outside because all I can do to keep Ida from crying in fright is to stay inside with her and shush away the sound effects of our neighbours' celebration.

But what I could see from my place in the doorway looked beautiful!

There seems to be a sudden exodus of friends going on and since I've wanted to follow - or track?? - some things over on dreamwidth anyway, I caved and set up an account.

I feel a bit stupid trying to navigate DW, so I've blindly friended whomever I could find right away.

Or rather, 'I granted access'. That's friending, right? Right?

What's that subscribing business? Am I doing it wrong?

*meeps*

Feel free to friend, track, subscribe or stalk me. I am lady_of_clunn over there as well :)

I'm going to bed now. Tomorrow is the last school day before Christmas.

Since I haven't done a lot of Christmassy things in the last three or four years, I am going a bit into overdrive.

I decided to make Christmas Plum Jam.

My trusty cookbook calls for 'a freshly polished copper cauldron'.

o_O

I am afraid there was a distinct lack of detentions lately and I did not have such a cauldron handy.

I tried a stainless steel cooking pot. I have no idea whether to stir clockwise or counterclockwise, so I think I am messing up even more.

It is bubbling something fierce, though...

Damn, if this is not detrimental to the magical properties of gingerbread spice!

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'Drei Haselnuesse fuer Aschenbroedel' I pity the rest of the world because I think it has never been dubbed in English.

I received the most beautiful Christmas cards from literaryspell and kayoko!

kayoko included some addictively-delicious hazelnuts tumbled in dark chocolate.

*floats around blissfully*

Thank you so much!

She also wrote a cute little drabble for me, which I just now found in the envelope! It's lovely! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

((()))

Your cards are already on the way and should arrive well before Christmas :)

*cough*

I seem to have forgotten to mention that I have started posting my dramione_remix story to archives. It's a Dramione interpretation of the pairing Robin/Marion and I am posting it in four chapters. A huge thanks goes to missingkeys, who is such a patient cheerleader, sounding board and beta! If she hadn't prompted me with 'twig', I might have had to drop out of the fest!

kayoko made an awesome poster for me! Thank you so much! You rock!




If you would like to read:

On AFF

On H&V

On GE

Enjoy :)

My
biscuit recipes have posted over at bakebakebake!

Snagged from delphipsmith:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate since I still haven't found out what egg nog is. I could google it, I suppose...

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I wouldn't know. Father Christmas wraps his presents.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White, candle-style lights on both the inside and outside tree and colourful fairy lights in the tiny round gable window. Although... I have to check. The fairy lights are nearly as old as I and spare coloured bulbs seem to be rare. I think the fairy lights might have morphed to white lights by now.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Rarely.

5. When do you put your decorations up? General decorations go up between the weekend before first Advent and the Saturday before first Advent. The Christmas tree itself goes up in the morning of Christmas Eve.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Stollen. And 'Baumstamm' marzipan = a chocolate-covered marzipan log with a noisette filling.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Finally being allowed to help decorate the tree.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What do you mean?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We open all our gifts on Christmas Eve. As is proper over here. *nods*

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Candle-style lights, glass baubles, glass bells, wooden ornaments (Erzgebirge style:
Wooden ornaments ) such as angels, nutcrackers, little toys, our very old leonic wire stars, gilded nuts. Tinsel only every other year.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? LOVE IT!! Unfortunately, a white Christmas is rather unlikely in Berlin.

12. Can you ice skate? Not really. I don't fall every few steps but I am far from doing pirouettes.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A huge Playmobil robber baron castle!

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? My family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Baked apples. Mmmhhh.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Decorating the tree with the radio playing Christmas songs in the background. Christmas markets and Mutzenmandeln. Watching 'Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella' at least ten times between first Advent and New Year (have already seen it twice this year :)) Watching the children unwrap their presents. Cooking swede and potato stew with the turkey leftovers on Boxing Day. I guess it's just the magic of it all, the predictability of the season that comes with old traditions, wherever we might be :)

17. What tops your tree? Either a traditional tree topper similar to this one:
Baumspitze or a silver-plated star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving:) Although I wouldn't mind if somebody would pick up on the broad hints I've been dropping regarding that necklace we saw at the pumpkin market.

19. Candy Canes? Exotic.

20. Favorite Christmas show? As in film? 'Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella', 'Good King Wenzeslas' and 'The Muppets Christmas Carol'.

21. Saddest Christmas Song? Little Drummer boy. *bawls*

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? 'Morgen Kinder, wird's was geben' because it's so happy, 'Silent Night' just before the gift-unwrapping-madness starts and 'Gloria in exelsis deo'.

23. Christmas morning: up at the crack of dawn, or sleep in? Sleep in. We celebrate on Christmas Eve, so Christmas morning is for sleeping in before getting the turkey ready and the red cabbage and the potato dumplings and the apples :)

24. Do you send actual paper Christmas cards? Only to people who live far away. When living abroad I send cards to all my friends and family in Germany but not this year - I'll see all of them at some point :)

25. Strangest place you've ever spent Christmas (Eve or Day, your choice)? The Autobahn. My parents thought it would be a good idea to start our skiing holiday on Christmas Eve because the highways are empty on that day. We arrived rather late in Austria, decorated the little tree that the forester had delivered and 'celebrated' Christmas at around ten o'clock. Might sound romantic but was just tiring and rushed.

While many of you good people were enjoying turkey and cranberry sauce, tuawahine, missingkeys and I officially started the Christmas season.

While many Christmas markets in Berlin were already open since Monday, I usually don't go until very close to Christmas.

It was lovely. I feel all festive now.

We met up at Brandenburg Gate, which I hadn't bother seeing for the better part of a decade and I actually took my first photo of it feeling rather silly and like a tourist in my own city.



And the seasonal version :)



Christmas Market at the Gendarmenmarkt:





I hardly ever drink alcohol but one (!!) mug of mulled wine is tradition at the market. Well, after being pregnant and then breast feeding/extracting milk, I guess my tolerance is about that of a twelve-year-old. I wasn't feeling drunk at all but this morning I had the first hangover in over ten years. I hardly got Tani ready for school and out of the door before I had to reacquaint myself with the porcelain bowl. Feeling much better now but I think I shall pass the Feuerzangenbowle this year :(