Traditions

Basel Christmas Market

Traditions bind me to my roots.  I look forward to turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.  I love to take my family out for a birthday dinner.  Angel food cake is my personal birthday favorite.  Worship on Sunday morning and saying, "I love you" to my husband both give meaning to my days.

Christmas holds many traditions for me.  I love Starbuck's red cups.  I await the weekend after Thanksgiving to start listening to carols and put up decorations.  Candy canes and homemade Christmas cookies bring joy to the season.  Christmas cards, writing a Christmas letter, parties, and time enjoying a special Christmas meals with my children and grandchildren all add to the joys of Christmas.

Living in Germany has required that I reassess most of my traditions, but, especially, those I hold dear at Christmas.

Red cup at Basel Starbuck's

Starbuck's is not close, so once or twice during the holiday season I make the trek to Basel or Freiburg for my Christmas coffee, European style.  We don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here, so I wait until just before Advent to hang the Christmas stockings.  Finding the right ingredients and baking can be a challenge, so I tend to purchase, rather than bake, traditional German Christmas goodies--stollen and zimtsterne.

Due to the cost of postage, a friend in the US mails our Christmas letter.  Christmas markets with friends take the place of Sunday School class parties.  And, of course, our children and grandchildren we enjoy via Skype, all the while wishing they could be around our Christmas table!

Eating Wurst in a Christmas Market snowfall

This year, wanting to give candy canes to my students, I asked if anyone knew where to purchase them, either in France or in Germany, but no one knew.  We found some in several Christmas markets, but one cane here is worth a box of twelve in the US!  On the last day of school, one of my students brought me a gift-12 American candy canes.  Her kindness in sharing her candy canes touched me.  I brought them home and put them on our tree, which is a tradition for our US Christmas, too.  

Odd how I can miss peppermint candy canes so.  And delightful how God provides the little things in my life.   Life has changed considerably since moving to Germany, but His grace to me remains the same.