Merry Little Christmas

This year was another Zoom Church Christmas:

Yes, Paul's hair just keeps getting better and better. Thanks for asking.

With Corona restrictions, we technically are still aloud to go to church (although it would be a shorter service) and meet with people. However, out of an abundance of caution because we really want to keep the schools open, we've decided not to meet with any non-vaccinated friends i.e. other kids during the break. Crosby has one jab in him (yay!) but it's going to be awhile before other kids his age are vaccinated. So, this year was our smallest Christmas ever. But, it was also one of small victories.

1. I managed to sneak carrots in waffles without anyone noticing. 

The Beckley family tradition is to eat waffles with whip cream and strawberries on Christmas Eve. As far as I know, this tradition started with my grandparents as my Grandpa liked breakfast for dinner and they were looking for an easy meal with quick clean-up. They followed the German tradition of opening Christmas on Christmas Eve unlike everyone else I know in the US. As they were farmers in the early years, they had enough reasons to wake-up early, so they didn't need one more on Christmas.

My natural tendency is towards mommy's revenge, but this carrot addition was because my friend Shannon was gifted about a baby's weight of carrots from the Asian restaurant in her building. I had to use the carrots up, so I made the waffles a day ahead and then warmed them in the oven. Sadly, the day ahead waffles aren't the same, so I won't be repeating that plan for company. But, it was nice to not have to run around day-of.

The whip cream was also a good disguise.

2. Finding where St. Nick fits in the story 

Despite the fact that Paul and I are both technically from the same region of the USA, we had very different upbringings. Perhaps no where is this more evident than at Christmas time. There is a constant push-pull of me trying to focus on the reason we celebrate, and Paul trying to make it more fun. This is the second year where Santa stuffs the stockings but doesn't bring traditional big gifts.

In Germany, Saint Nicholas visits the kids who leave out their shined shoes on the 6th of December. On Christmas, extra presents are brought by the "Christmas Man" in the more Protestant North and "Christ Child" in the more Catholic South. Where we landed, is following the tradition of Saint Nicholas both on the 6th of December and Christmas. This year Saint Nicholas was a bit passive aggressive leaving this note in a book:

Santa also wants the boys to be better examples of not encouraging Carmen to repeat "potty talk".

3. Experience gifts instead of more stuff

Paul's parents jumped on board with the less toys, more memories this year:

PB^2 was gifted a dinner out when Paul's parents are (hopefully) here in a month.

Paul's and my presents to the boys were "Boys' Night" at a local hotel. We started this tradition about a year and a half ago when I had the idea to give Paul a night in a hotel for Father's Day. Don't feel totally bad for him, we first had a date, and then I left him to sleep. 

This year the boys each got a night in the hotel with Daddy. We gave the boys the option to stay together for two nights or separately for one night each. Understandably, Hugo wanted two, and Crosby wanted his own night. We ended up letting Hugo stay Christmas with Daddy and then Crosby on Boxing Day.

The plan with the hotel was that when we did the switch with the boys, that Carmen and I could go swimming in the hotel pool with boys. Well, Corona foiled that plan, so Carmen and I were left to go bike around the biggest city park, Tiergarten, in -10C/20F weather. 

No room at the Inn for Mommy and Baby = also Christmas in Berlin. 

4. A couple fair trade gifts under the tree

Sadly, this wasn't a total victory as the earbuds I ordered were too big for my non-European sized ears. However, the reusable cloth gift bags will be seen for years to come. For funsies - I did want to plug a few companies I found during my search.

Fairphone - This company makes fair-trade phones and accessories. Sadly we're still too dependent on Apple to make the true jump. 

Gulu Packing Cubes - I wish I would have found these fun packing cubes before I ordered some non-ethical option a year ago. I found this company while looking for festive cloth gift bags. 

Weedo Skisuits - We ended up getting a ski suit combo hand-me-down for Carmen that works so another ski suit was unnecessary. But man are these ski suits are awesome looking.

When you're this cute, it doesn't really matter if your snow gear matches.

5. Christmas Pizza

If we have waffles for dinner, Pizza for breakfast seems logical right?

6. Happy Kids

I was a bit concerned that the kids would be disappointed with the toned down gifts and even skipping the tree this year. (See last post - our cleaning lady was gone for a month, so as much as I wanted to vacuum even more... ;)) I present the Christmas Corner:

But, at the end of the day Hugo said his favorite part of Christmas was "Gummies" as in the gummies he got from the convenience store with Paul at Boy's Night. Crosby "aka Scrooge McDuck" was happy counting his Christmas money from Papa and Coco and Auntie Mo. Carmen, well, she likes it loud, so this was likely her fav:

Congratulations on surviving another Corona-filled Christmas season, especially if you were limping through it like me. The first Christmas also wasn't glamorous nor easy so we're just staying on theme.