You Go Nate!

FROHE WEIHNACHTEN VON LÜSSOW!!!

On the 21st of December I woke up at 4:30 AM in order to make to the train station ready to catch my train at 5:30 to Berlin. Before I knew it I was staring out the window of the train watching the sunrise over Northern Bavaria. I arrived in Berlin and changed trains to go to Güstrow in the Bundesland of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. I arrived in Güstrow without a hitch and Wolfgang was there to pick me up. As we drove the 10 minutes from Güstrow to Lüssow around 3:30pm, the sun was starting to set. It was the shortest day of the year, but a long one for me. I finally arrived at the house of Sybille & Wolfgang, my fourth cousins twice-removed.

The next couple of days were relaxing. Whenever I stay with Sybille & Wolfgang it is all German all the time, which means that my German always improves after being there. I also tend to gain weight because I get fed so well and in the winter, there isn't a lot of moving around to be done to burn calories.

On Tuesday Wolfgang and I went golfing. I lost.

On Wednesday it was Christmas Eve Day, which is as big a deal here as Christmas Day is in the States. I helped Wolfgang cut down a pine tree from their back yard to use as their Christmas tree. We dragged it into the living room and Sybille decorated it.

That afternoon I went with S&W's daughter, Antje to the Christmas Service at the neighboring Lutheran Church. It was pleasant and interesting, but I was really tired for some reason and had trouble staying awake. The Christmas tree on the left was also provided by S&W from their yard.

After the Service, we had a pleasant dinner and then went into the living room to open presents. When Antje and I walked in we found that the Weihnachtsman (Santa) had left some goodies under the tree for us. I got some marzipan, a giant chocolate Santa (which I accidentally crushed this morning), and a pocket calendar.

Next it was time to exchange gifts. S&W had something nice for me...

I opened my present to find...

A pair of hiking/winter boots! It wasn't really a surprise because on Monday we were in Güstrow running some errands and Sybille said to me, "you need some shoes for the winter." And she marched me straightaways into a shoe store and after trying on a few pairs, we found some good ones made from real yak leather. Wearing shoes made from such hide has severely curbed my desires to talk back.

Next, it was my turn to give and so I gave Sybille & Wolfgang a fun golf book and some treats.

Sybille then fetched a package for me from Mom in Utah. It had many goodies inside, including some iTunes gift cards and my very own copy of Utah Business with Mike and Dad on the cover. Also inside were earplugs from the Winder bottling plant.

On Christmas day we slept in a bit and then went to visit the family of S&W's son, Gunnar. Gunnar and Stefi live about five minutes away with their three-year-old son Elias who is my sixth cousin without removing anything.

Elias was very excited to show us the new train set he got from the Weihnachtsman. When Sybille handed him present to open, his eyes grew wide and with a "danke, Oma!" he went to the table to unwrap it. As he saw the truck with a horse trailer inside he kept shouting, "Ich glaub'es gar nichts!" which means "I can't believe it!" It was really funny to watch...

We had fun playing with everyone's gifts.

Sybille and I played some foozball with Elias as goalie/referee...

And we found a puppet to scare Elias with...

We ate a hearty lunch of pork chops & peaches, with potatoes, braised red cabbage, and a yummy sauce.

After lunch and some lounging around we went for a walk. Elias brought his bike.

Wolfgang found some white berries still clinging to the wintered bushes. He through them on the ground for Elias to ride over them. If the berry was still good you could hear a small "pop."

Then we started lining the berries up on the road for Elias to run over...

After running them over he would turn the bike around to get the ones he missed...

It was a nice Christmas day, and there was a beautiful sunset. That evening back at S&W's I phoned home for Christmas and was able to talk to the fam, including cousins, aunts, uncles, and Grandma Winder at the traditional Christmas Breakfast at Aunt Karen's. It was great!

The next day Sybille's two brothers and their spouses and also Gunnar's family and Antje came over for the Christmas feast. Sybille had prepared a wonderful roast goose with plums and apples, a fine gravy, a starter soup from the giblets, braised red cabbage (Rotkohl), and of course, potatotes. It was excellent!

That evening we had "Brotzeit" or supper, with all kinds of good cheese, salmon, smoked duck, schinken, and cherry tomatoes. More good food.

We spent the next few days eating left overs and relaxing. On Saturday I went golfing with S&W again. I lost. Again.

It had been a fun, relaxing, German-intensive, time filled with wonderful things to eat. Sybille and Wolfgang were extremely gracious to let me come and be a part of their Christmas tradition.

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Today I'm in Berlin...







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