merry christmas the german-american way

In Germany, the most important Christmas day is the 24th.
And so our main celebration and the "Bescherung" (the gift giving) will be today.
Usually, the family gathers in the afternoon, and our family always went to church to see the nativity play in which our daughter paricipated for 6 years in a row, then we had "Kaffee und Kuchen" (coffee and cake), a tradition my american friends can't really appreciate, then the "Weihnachtsmann" (Santa Claus) came to bring the presents for the kids. Unfortunately, he sometimes came while we where still in church.

As usually, we will trim our tree in the morning of the 24th. But I think, next year we will go with the american way and set it up in the beginning of december. It just makes more sense to me :-)

So my kids are looking forward to a lot of presents tomorrow afternoon, and then to filled stockings on the morning of the 25th. They appreciate all things american that mean even more presents :-)

I didn't make a lot of handmade christmas gifts this year, I was just too busy working. But that's okay with me.

For a friend I made an "owl beauty pillow" last week, I knew she would love it, and it is such fun to make it:

It is embellished with woven ribbon and pompom fringe, and on the bag it has a pocket on the back  to store some secrets or an iPod:

(Just in case you think you have already seen this, it was in an Ottobre magazine this year)


And for our favorite neighbors, and Tessas gymnastic teacher, I made some angels (embroiderd in the hoop) and added some candy in nice bags:

I plannend on making at least 5 more for more of our neigbors, but I think it depends on how early my daughter will wake up tomorrow if I will still make it or not :-)

I wish you all merry christmas,
thanks so much for stopping by
Tina