26th Christmas Lunch at his Parents 26日のクリスマスランチ

On 26th, we were invited by Jan's parents for Christmas lunch.
In Germany, Christmas eve is on 24th and Christmas is on 25th and 26th (I was believing that Christmas is until 25th.). So all shops are closed from 24th afternoon, trams, and buses get a lot less on operation.
Since shops are closed and people get less on the streets it creates a quiet and calm atmosphere in the city. In Japan christmas is more party like and celebrated mostly by young couples while in western countries with christian religion all family members come together to celebrate, exchange presents and have dinner and go to church eventually in the night. This might be a reason that in Japan many people don't know what christmas exactly is. So they also exchange presents with friends and coworkers.
I stayed in Japan from December last year until February this year, so this was actually my second christmas in Germany and I could enjoy the original christian christmas here.
Even if you are a non christian you can enjoy the traditional christmas atmosphere.
When we entered Jan's parents house we were surrounded in a good smell of food and in the living room the TV showed a program which his father recorded in holy night which showed a church ceremony in Bavaria with lots of christmas songs.

26日、クリスマス2日目、私たちはじょんの両親にランチに招待され自宅でごはんをいただいて来ました。
ドイツでは24日はおなじみのイヴ、25日,26日がクリスマスなので24日の午後からどこのお店も閉まり、路面電車やバスもたちまち少なくなります。
街はシーンと静まり返りますが、それがまたキリスト教の国独特の雰囲気を醸し出して素敵です。
友だち総出のクリスマスパーティーやプレゼント交換などはなく、家族揃って神聖な日を過ごすといった感じですね。
去年は12月頭に語学学校が終了して2月まで日本に帰国していましたが、今回2度目のドイツでのクリスマス、やっぱりいいなーと感じました。
クリスチャンでなくとも惹かれますね。
じょんの両親の家に着いて中に入るとすぐに耳に入って来たのが教会のクリスマスソング。…

More Photos 写真
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For lunch the table in the living room was nicely decorated.
The candle windmill is already over 30 years old and still working very well. They bought it before Jan was even born.
When I visit friends or family members here I always recognize that people here have a good sense for style and decorations of their homes. And in during christmas time it gets even better like many houses have some decorations in the windows like electric powered light stars and candles.
In north Europe like Scandinavia where winters are long and dark, people light up their houses more frequently to enjoy that time, the more I was surprised to see that people living in central Europe like Germany do the same.
As appetizer a mushroom soup was served. His dad, who was in charge for the lunch, added a lot of extra mushrooms into the soup.
For the soup he served white wine which made me turned red faced even from a small amount in the glass.

リビングのダイニングテーブルもキレイにデコレーションされててうっとりしました。
どこの家をお邪魔しても、家具、観葉植物、壁の色などの組み合わせがキレイ。
冬が長い北欧の人たちが、インテリアを楽しむのが上手、というのは南方のヨーロッパ圏でも言えるよね、なんて頻繁に思います。
最初にいただいたのがマッシュルームがふんだんに使われたスープ。白ワインと一緒に小さい食パンと一緒に食べました。
白には白というわけで白ワインですが食べ始めて間もないうちに私は回りました。(こんなに少ないのに)笑

Usually his family buys a real big christmas tree ( Nordmann Fir ) for the holidays, this year was the first time that they didn't. The reason was that the family wasn't together completely over the holidays. Jan had a flight and came back in the evening of 25th and his sister stays in Thailand for 2 weeks for vacation. So they brought the small electrical christmas tree which they are always using in their weekend apartment in the Odenforest.
Many presents were lying under the small tree and surrounded by angle figures.
I think this size of christmas tree would be perfect if you live in Japan because nobody buys a christmas tree there for homes.

毎年生の木を買って(もみの木とは少し種類が違うようです。独語: Nordmanntanne 英語: Nordmann Fir)飾り付けをするお父さんですが今年は買わずに小さい電気式のかわいいツリーを置いていました。

周りにはたくさんのプレゼントが積んであり、ツリーを囲んで並んだ天使たちがムードを引き立てます。

これくらいの大きさなら日本のアパートでも簡単に再現可能ですよね(既に構想中 笑)。

The main dish was filled duck with pork meat.
His mom said that in northern Germany they usually use apples to fill duck or gooses while in south Germany pork meat is more common.
The meat was served with baked fried potato dumplings and red cabbage (check the last blog post too).
Perfectly for meat red wine was served as drink.
We had dessert too though, I missed taking a picture of it. That was chilled pears with bourbon vanilla ice cream and chocolate mousse on.
After opening up presents and chatting, we left to go back home.

メインディッシュは豚肉詰めの鴨(またもや)でした。
じょんのお母さんが、北ドイツは鴨やガチョウに使われる詰め物はリンゴで、南ドイツ(私たちが住んでいる地方)は豚肉なんだ、と教えてくれました。
でもダブルの肉ってどうなんだい?って思ったのは私だけ。。?笑
肉と一緒によそられたのは中身がじゃがいもだけの小さいコロッケと、前回の記事でも紹介した紫キャベツ。肉料理についてくる赤ワインもいただきました。
デザートもあったのですが写真を撮り損ないました；；
皮を剥いて冷やした洋梨に、バーボンバニラアイスとチョコレートムースの乗っているもの。イメージだけでも美味しそうでしょ?
プレゼントを開けて少し喋ってから帰宅しました。

I'm going to make posts of 31st and new year next days. Stay tuned :D

大晦日と年明けの記事も書きますのでお楽しみに ^ ^

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よいお年を!

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