I hope you had a lovely Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year. I love to observe and experience the traditions and customs of other religions and cultures. I’m so thankful we live in such a rich, diversified world!
On the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce forum, we were sharing some of the special goodies members received (or gave!) this year, and how we all spent our holidays. In my family, we grew up giving and getting lots of gifts. Even still, my dad makes me and my sister give him our Christmas gift lists.
But I really tire of it. It’s become more of chore to me anymore and I find it all really commercial and consumptive and wasteful, especially when you don’t need for anything (and can buy exactly what you want yourself when you do) or you get things that will only sit in a closet or be given away.
Rob and I live a very intentionally simple, not-so-consumeristic lifestyle. I always try to buy gifts I know loved ones really want or will use. I absolutely hate buying people things without putting any thought or effort into it just to get them something. What’s the point of that? There’s no soul in it and when that’s the case, we aren’t doing something nice for someone; we’re just doing it for ourselves.
I love the idea of gifts that are super meaningful and unmaterialisitic, not necessarily purchased–one of the reasons I really loved Christine’s article last issue of The Portable Business. I hate to say it, because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the U.S. and am actually very homesick, but being in Germany really shows the contrast in how wasteful and consumptive we are in the States as a society.
Rob’s family doesn’t really do gifts and instead focuses more on family and friends and getting together. Of course, every year, they always give us some little thing or other after making a big deal out of reminding everyone NO GIFTS, LOL.
We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with his folks. Christmas eve it was just me and Rob and his parents. We always have a toast of champagne before eating. For dinner, his mom made wienersnitzel (she knows how much I LOVE that!) with mashed potatoes and veges and pumpkin bread. Then we sat around the table until 11pm just gabbing and drinking good German beer.
On Christmas day, we went back to his parents. They had their good friends, Ute and Rolf, over as well. His parents live on the edge of the Kaefertaelerwald (wald = forest) where you can walk through miles of woodland trails or see the several kinds of deer, bison, goats and wild boar they keep in a park. That afternoon before dinner, we all walked over to the park with a bag of chopped up veges, apples and bread to feed the animals. The little boar piglets were so stinkin’ cute!
That night we had turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberries, green beans, corn and stuffing with wine and champagne. Dessert was pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. Rob’s mom is such an amazing cook! That woman deserves sainthood, I tell you!
Today, we have been doing nothing but laying around and eating the leftovers his mom sent home with us and the Roche’s chocolates Ute gave me. It’s so funny–we’re like the wild boars fighting over the grub, LOL. Neither of us wants the other to get any more than the first, but Rob keeps stealing bites off my plate anyway. My strategy is to eat everything on my plate and THEN steal bites off his-he can’t counterattack because there’s nothing left to steal, LOL!
I’m actually a little under the weather with a sore throat trying not to get sick. They say to feed a cold, right? Who am I to argue? LOL
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