Give me all the matching holiday jammies, Christmas cookies, and yuletide traditions. This year I set off on an ambitious (read: 100% not feasible) culinary tour of family recipes (Chocolate Spritz cookies -Mark’s mom’s recipe), new-to-us German treats (Bear paws and Quark Stollen from this cookbook) and scratch made meals for the week, in an effort to distract myself from continued lock-down and the inevitable cabin fever that accompanies it. And while my bear paws resembled more of a club foot and I killed most of the yeast in my stollen, twas mostly fun and always messy.

I decorated our dining table with greenery, twinkle lights and candles that was minimal effort to create and incredibly gratifying.

The boys waking to treats from Saint Nikolaus in their boots.

Gluhwein (mulled wine) and Kinderpunsch (children’s punch), as small taste of the cancelled Christmas Markets.

We drove to the edge of our town and selected a Christmas tree, shortest tree commute, to date. Mark and the boys trimmed the tree and Owen created a paper snowflake tree topper he wants to “keep forever”.

Each family member chose an advent calendar - Germany takes this very seriously, the selection is overwhelming/awesome. The kids got Lindt chocolate balls, Mark Niedregger marizipan and for me, Bonne Maman jam.

Our annual holiday card was accentuated with a new address stamp, another step to establishing our new home, and hopefully a spot of joy from 2020 in our loved ones mailboxes.

Letters to Santa detailing a very specific fire truck (he’d add a new feature each day) and “helicopter dinosaurs”.

Walking around downtown with our friends to see Christmas Lights at Lusienplatz.

To cap off our first few months of home school we had a “holiday party” replete with giant paper snowflake decorations Owen and I made, gingerbread house decorating, baking and 10/10 would recommend gifting yourself a “teachers gift” (here’s looking at you, leopard watch band).

For Christmas Eve, Mark prepared the best home made burgers I’ve had in ages alongside tots. Christmas dinner we feasted lasagna (my dad’s recipe) for the adults, ziti for the kids (who do not like lasagna/cheese/melty goodness, and that day because they are toddlers, ZITI - why?!), steamed broccoli and garlic bread.

Spending the week video chatting with family made us feel together despite the miles (shout out to my mom for surprising us by being awake when the kids woke up on Christmas day!).