Holiday Fun! Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

Thanksgiving

My two most favorite things in the world are family and food. Therefore, my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Though Germany doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I was still happy to celebrate it with my host family. I want to say my Thanksgiving was spread out during the week this year. It was a little weird for me to go to school on Thursday, but I was still able to carry out one of my Thanksgiving traditions. Every Thanksgiving, I watch all of the Thanksgiving episodes from Friends. And I did just that! I have a couple of study halls at school so I used that time, and I watched the rest at home. On Saturday, we had my host family’s extended family come over to celebrate my host mom’s birthday. We had dinner, talked, and played games. I was proud to introduce the card game Spoons to everyone. It was an absolute hit! The whole evening was lots of fun and it felt like home with family around having a great time. On Sunday, we had our Thanksgiving dinner. (Hey, it doesn’t have to be Thursday to thankful right?)  For dinner, we made mashed potatoes, chicken (because a turkey would have been way too big), and Grandma Kadlecek’s sweet potato casserole (aka my favorite Thanksgiving food). Everything was absolutely delicious and tasted like home.

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Christmas

A new Christmas tradition I was introduced to was going to Christmas markets! For a weekend, my host family drove to Metz, France to visit the Christmas markets. This was super exciting for me because, well its France! (I put it in perspective and driving to France from my host family’s house is like driving to Wausau, WI from Phillips, WI. Like how cool is that?!) The weekend was so much fun! We started off by having dinner at a really good Polish restaurant. While eating dinner, I noticed something: I (an American), was eating dinner with my German host parents, in a Polish restaurant, in France. How diverse is that?! My mind was blown. In one room I was surrounded by so many different cultures and I absolutely loved it. I am here on exchange to learn and experience different cultures, and I am doing just that. Another cool thing that I noticed while in France was that I didn’t notice what language I should speak. I don’t speak French so do I speak German or English? Since English is typically taught as a foreign language in European countries, it was likely someone knew a little bit of English. So we spoke English to the vendors and hotel staff. The funny thing is, it felt more natural to speak German than it did to speak English! Let’s just say I was more awkward than usual because I would start off speaking German and then realize that I needed to speak English.

The Christmas market was really cool and pretty! There were so many vendors with food and other goods to buy. In the middle was a big Ferris wheel. I also got to experience a couple more Christmas markets in Berlin. One market had an ice skating rink and another one had a stage with singers for entertainment. It was really fun to look at all of the vendor stands and try the different foods. I’d say my favorite part was all of the Christmas tree lights! If the opportunity to go to a Christmas market arises, definitely take it. It’s a lot of fun and gets you in the Christmas spirit!  

For Christmas Eve, we went to my host dad’s parents’ house for dinner. It was a lot of fun! When we got home I was able to video chat with my family back home. My whole family celebrates Christmas Eve together at my grandparents’ house so it was really nice to talk to everyone and with them a Merry Christmas! For Christmas day my host family’s extended family came over and we celebrated together. My host mom’s side of the family is Polish, so I had the pleasure of experiencing some Polish traditions. At the beginning of the meal, we passed around a large wafer called an ‘Oplatek’. We broke off a piece of each other’s wafer, along with wishing each other “Frohe Weihnachten” (Merry Christmas). It was super cool! (My host mom also explained to me this was only a Polish tradition.) For our first course, we had “barszcz” (beetroot soup) with “uszka” (little dumplings) as well as mushroom soup (both traditional Polish dishes). To let our stomachs rest for a little bit we exchanged a couple of presents. For our second course, we had carp (normally the main dish of a Polish Christmas dinner), salmon rolls, and pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce, and coleslaw. After the second course and exchanging gifts, we had dessert. For dessert, we had “szarlotka” (a polish apple cake) and “pierogies” (a filled dumpling). Everything was so delicious! The rest of the evening was full of fun and laughter.

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New Years

For New Year’s Eve, we had a lot of fun! To start off the evening, we had a fondue dinner. Then we chilled and waited until midnight. At about 11:55, we went into the street with our neighbors. After counting down to midnight, everyone started to shoot off fireworks. It was really cool. It was like we were in the middle of a firework show. After talking with our neighbors and wishing everyone a happy New Year, my host sister and I made everyone pancakes at about 1:00 in the morning. Then we spent the rest of the night singing karaoke and watching movies.  

As one can see, my holiday season was very successful! Even though I wasn’t at home with my family for the holidays, I had a lot of fun and felt at home with my second family. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years!