Christmas in Stadtlohn

As you may know from my last post, I traveled to Germany to spend Christmas with my family.

My mother embellished the entire house with Christmas decoration. There are lamps and candles everywhere which provide a warm and romantic atmosphere. Moreover she placed little snowman-figures and stars everywhere.  The Christmas tree was already standing in the living-room when we arrived. It’s a blue spruce, a type of fir that barely loses any needles. Look at the picture! It’s so beautiful! Some people might find Christmas decoration very corny, but I like it a lot.

My mother also provided for so much good food. I’ve probably already gained a lot of weight, as everything she prepares is very delicious. Since my boyfriend and I are vegan, we had some worries beforehand, because my mother is not experienced in vegan cooking. But actually there was no reason for it. She managed to bake a perfect nut-cake without any animal products. No eggs, no milk, no cream – just a cruelty-free cake. We were so happy about it and it tasted delicious. We also went shopping with her and we bought some vegan products in a wholefood shop. These made cooking quite easy.  We helped preparing lunch every day. The rest of the family also tried some vegan food and – surprise surprise – they really liked it. For Christmas Eve we decided to do Woking. It’s a relatively unknown way to prepare food but it is similar to Raclette. Everybody gets a small wok-pan and puts in whatever food he or she likes. We bought a lot of Asian vegetables, sauces and spices beforehand and the whole family helped chopping it before the big gluttony began. It was so luscious! I wish I could do this every day. It might seem like an unconventional Christmas dinner but my family is very open to different cultures and therefore we were all very satisfied.

The gift giving was of course also very nice. I received some really useful photography equipment and my mother also knitted a scarf and a beanie for me that fit my hair colour. It must have been so much work! My boyfriend gave me Lord of the Dance tickets as gift! OMG I am looking forward to it already, even though it’s in December next year. We all were happy with our gifts.

It is so pleasant to spend some time with my family. Unfortunately it’s quite difficult to visit them as Stadtlohn is more than thousand kilometres away from Graz. Until now we just relaxed and enjoyed every day. We watch movies take walks, and play parlour games, having a lot of fun together. Moreover I already had two photo shoots with my sister Sandra. She did an awesome job each time. The first one was a fairytale-shooting. Unfortunately it was quite cold outside, but we managed to keep her warm with tea, scarfs and a hot-water bottle.

The second shooting was a re-creation of a fashion-photo by F.C. Gundlach. We did it at a huge lake called “Zwirlbrocker Venn” – a beautiful location.

Both shootings were projects for the photography school I visit.

All in all, spending time with my family is the best thing about Christmas. We just see each other once or twice a year, but when we do, we make it worthwhile and we spend the whole time together.