Sunday, February 3, 2013

Christmas Tree/Weihnachtsbaum

This year we left the tree in the living-room until Candlemas. I think the Vatican does the same, and a few of my relatives also follow this custom. So today it finally was moved to the porch for feeding the birds after all the ornaments had disappeared overnight.

Dieses Jahr haben wir den Weihnachtsbaum bis Mariä Lichtmeß im Wohnzimmer stehen lassen.  Ich glaube, daß dieser Brauch auch im Vatikan üblich ist.  Einige meiner Verwandten machen es auch so.  Heute kam er so nach draußen auf unsere Terasse, um dort zu einem Vogelfutterbaum umgewandelt zu werden.  Der Baumschmuck war schon über Nacht verschwunden.   



Peter went outside to play with Flora in the snow.
Peter hat draußen mit Flora im Schnee gespielt.  




We also had date meringue cake.  Delicious!
Zum Kaffeetrinken gab es Dattelbaiserkuchen.  Lecker!




Both Peter and Charlotte were our cantors in church today. Father D. remarked how lovely they sounded after he had blessed our candles.

Heute waren Peter und Charlotte Vorsänger in der Kirche.  Pfarrer D. merkte nach der Segnung unserer Kerzen an, wie schön sie zusammen geklungen hätten.  






 

7 comments:

  1. Ah so you decided to keep the tree till candlemas! I've read about that before and i must admit it seemed a shame to take ours down when there was still so much life left in it! at the time i had wondered about making it into a prayer tree, but sickness got the better of me and i couldn't face the extra effort. Maybe next year.

    san xxx

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    1. Well, we hadn't quite planned it that way, but we always leave it for Jonathan's birthday and then Miriam thought it would be nice for her to also still have the tree up on her birthday. When I read about the Vatican's tradition to keep it up until Candlesmas, I thought that that was perfect for us.

      What is a prayer tree?

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  2. That cake looks yummy. I love dates. I did not know that the Vatican leaves the tree up until Candelmas. That is an interesting tradition.

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    1. Thanks so much. I also just learned that recently and thought it was a nice custom.

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  3. the tree did look so pretty behind jonathan when he was reciting. i think we would have liked to leave our tree up longer, but then we would have had to put it out on the curb for the garbage pick up. it's nicer to mulch it (sigh). so many concerns!

    what a lovely church time :) and the date cake looked delicious . . especially after playing outside in the snow?! i'm going to get ready for bed now . . and have a gingersnap with a glass of milk before brushing my teeth. we have ice skating in the morning and m and c are sleeping. it's been cold!

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    1. That's probably true about mulching the tree instead of letting the garbage people pick it up. Here the trees can't be picked up by the garbage. You have to burn it or mulch it yourself.

      We had the cake before we went outside. I didn't actually go outside, it was too cold for my taste. Happy ice skating tomorrow. Peter wanted to go one more time on Friday, but now he has a commitment on campus. He might go one more time next week then.

      I also need to get to bed. Good night!

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