Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner

And so after a rest from the splendid breakfast at Gerald and Jütta’s, I braved the snow and -6°C weather and finally got to my station and was pleasantly surprised to see that the regional train arrived on time.

I wondered if this was a gift from Santa Claus for we have had irregular services for the last two weeks which is, by coincidence, when we started to get the heavy snow falls. While on this subject, I have never experienced so much snow and minus temperatures in December in Berlin as this year. The locals I talk too tell me the same.

I duly arrived at Marga’s very tastefully furnished flat in Charlottenberg to be met by her usual warm welcome. Like me she is an atheist and has no good memories of ‘family and Christmas’. We celebrate mid-winter just as Europeans did before the arrival of Christianity and the takeover of the mid-winter festival. This has now been honed to a speciality of consumption aided by the ‘marketing boys’ of large companies.

Like me, she spent the happiest years of her life not living in Europe, so she likes to cook different kinds of regional foods. She specialises in Thai food. Mmmm, delicious but we didn’t have that this year. We started the evening with a glass of chilled Champers, then another one as we relaxed and caught up on our news.

I took a few photos mainly for liebe Andrea for I always think of her comment that when she reads my blog I am usually eating or drinking….or both! So, just for you liebe Andrea here are a few photos of me with food and drink and my very charming hostess, Marga.  She had even got mince pies, made in  England, for desert. Amazing!

I nearly forgot: For my non-German readers, the 24th December is the traditional day for family, giving and receiving presents, and eating a meal in the evening. In the UK this is on the 25th December.