Have been completely wrapped up in the season – Christmas is still my favorite time of year… Our traditional family celebration last night was wonderful as always, a beautiful, peaceful family celebration, and I wish all of you (well, those that celebrate the season in any shape or form) a truly merry holiday!
Category Archives: Moments
Rooms and holidays
Back in my room, which now looks as cozy as ever. Still have to hang pictures (although wallspace is scarce – too many books! *g*) and put up my CD racks, but other than that is’s all done. Walls were painted, a new carpet (in light yellow) was bought and all the furniture and things carried back in and re-arranged to improve studying conditions. Yesterday especially was exhausting, so now I’m really glad to have it behind me.
And right in time, too: A happy beginning of December to everyone that celebrates Christmas! Christmas is my favorite time of year and I’m very excited that it’s now officially begun – last Sunday was the first day of Advent, and now it’s December. My mom gave me the traditional Advent calendar (in the form of a cute postcard) and I opened the first door this morning.
I also found a Finnish Advent calendar online – very cute!
Edited to add: I’ve not forgotten.
Snow!
The first snow of the year came down in the night. Not a lot of it, but I’m so excited anyway – there’s just something magical about it in my eyes. Now, if only it sticks so I can take a walk in it… *twirls happily*
Sadly, I’m still sick, though. Spent yesterday morning clearing out my room for the painter on Monday and overdid it. So now I’m back in bed – in an empty room that looks more like a storage facility than a place where someone lives… But still, I’m proud that I managed to get it all done in such a short time (with my parents’ help). It’s almost worth being sick again. 🙂
Feminism
I just had an epiphany of sorts: I am, in fact, a feminist.
I always had only the vague idea that feminism is some sort of political movement, too radical for my taste and smacking a bit of women-that-don’t-shave-and-hate-men. I had feminists for teachers in high school – Latin and German. They both wore chunky jewelry and hand-died cotton clothes, one had a kid and a stay-at-home husband (of whom she talked condescendingly) and had of course kept her name, and both seemed altogether stuck in the 70s. So my 14-year-old self thought, well, that’s definitely not me and decided that I wasn’t a feminist.
Well, I know better now: If you believe in, support, look fondly on, hope for, and/or work towards equality of the sexes, you are a feminist.
No sun today
The air tastes humid, heavy on my tongue, a bit like smoke from a wood fire. Birds are singing outside, but it doesn’t feel real. Not like when the sun is shining and the sky is bright blue. There’s something in the air, in the grey skies hanging low over the trees, that makes me want to be quiet and light a candle. Not sure yet whether in a good or bad way. We’ll see, I guess.
Something my mom saw on a postcard in Berlin
Kleine Morgengymnastik
Ich stehe mit dem
richtigen Fuss auf,
öffne das Fenster
meiner Seele,
verbeuge mich
vor allem, was liebt,
wende mein Gesicht
der Sonne entgegen,
springe ein paar Mal
über meinen Schatten
und lache mich gesund.
Small morning exercise
I stand up
with the right foot,
open the window
to my soul,
bow down
before everything that loves,
turn my face
towards the sun,
jump a couple of times
over my shadow,
and laugh myself healthy.
I’m not sure all the German metaphors translate. But I tried.
Unrelated: I made the mistake of buying chocolate marshmellows (at least that’s what tells me it’s called in English) for me and my brother, so now I can’t stop eating them. 🙂
You will not believe this!
I went into the living room to take down the Christmas lights on the balcony – and there was a bird sitting in the tree! I almost got a heart attack and Michi and I spent about 20 minutes trying to get it to fly out of the open door instead of into the closed windows… And if you know my phobia of dead animals, especially dead birds, you can imagine the nausea and panic that gripped me whenever it started flying around.
But all’s well that ends well, and the little bird hopped out through the door after I had the brilliant idea of carefully (as not to scare it) closing the curtains until the door was the only opening. And here are some photos to prove this (as usual, click for full-size image):
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A couple of Christmas photos
Sadly, all the snow melted in time for the holiday, and it’s been raining quite steadily all day today. But that did give me the chance to take a photo of this pretty rainbow outside the kitchen balcony yesterday afternoon:
I also took a photo of our beautifully lit tree last night – we had a wonderful family Christmas celebration (lots to eat, many cool presents), before heading out to a night service.
Click the thumbnails for the full-size version.
Merry Christmas
Michi and I decorated the tree this morning, as is tradition – I just love it, even when we have to fight a stubborn tree that insists on falling over and flooding the living room with water from the tree holder pot thingie… 🙂
I’ll probably take a photo when it’s dark outside and we lit the candles – but until then I wish all of you:
Also, a friend sent me this cute Christmas card – enjoy!
Just quickly
Have been really horrible about updating here, haven’t I? It just seems as if one can only repeat ‘I love the holiday season!’ so many times before it gets boring… But I just needed to pop in here now, because it started snowing a while ago! And it looks as if the snow might be staying!
Will head out with my mom for our almost-traditional walk in the first snow of the year… (Okay, so it’s actually the second snow, but the first was so wet, it didn’t stay on the ground.)