Martyna

acari posted an entry on Christmas a couple of days ago (prompted by an article in the Guardian) and asked everyone how they were spending their Christmas time - or the corresponding holiday in everyone's religion.

Basically, Christmas changed for me a lot since I arrived in France. I will start with the Christmas with my family I was used to (usually in Germany) and then continue with Frenchie Christmas (= with M. and his family).

The Christmas feeling usually started a little before December, with the first Advent and the Advent wreath and sometimes clove-pierced oranges. My mum also put up chain lights/fairy lights on the windows with us, sometimes we tried to make forms (stars for example). Marzipanbrot and Schoko-Dominos are typical sweets for the time preceding Christmas. My mum was always very strict regarding when and how much sweets we had, so we never had a lot of it - at least, until Christmas itself! We also usually had Advent calendars, when I was young little stockings with barely the space for a little sweet (or actually other gem) each day, but later there were the supermarket style chocolate-calendars. I think we once had a Playmobil-one, too. I really like Advent calendars, that little chocolate (or surprise gem) really can make one's day.
On December 6th we would usually have St Nikolaus - we would find sweets, oranges, nuts, tangerines and sometimes small gifts like stickers in our shoes, stockings or tights. We were of course supposed to clean our shoes to perfection before putting them out and always took great care to choose the biggest shoes we had. I think I once had a birch (which is for naughty children), though when I burst out crying my mum said it was only a joke or something like this. I remember she hasn't been serious about it, but I can't remember what exactly was going on. I also remember having written a long letter to Nikolaus once after he had "lost" his bonnet jammed in the door the previous year and telling him I had stored it safely for him.
Finally Christmas itself is a huge affair - usually we didn't set out to Poland in the winter, due to the difficulties on the road. This limited the impact of Christmas and basically it was Christmas evening with a little bit festive feeling (and food) left for the 25th. We had every year (when at home) a real Christmas tree, decorated by us with chain lights, self-made coloured paper-chains and Christmas ball ornaments. Sometimes we had a colour-theme (silver, gold, red, mix of two colours) or we went crazy on decorating. It also depended on who was "responsible" for decoration... or if we did it all together. Some years we had aluminium foil wrapped chocolate ornaments (put the hyphens were they belong...) for the tree or we used old or self-made ornaments, but I usually liked a more sober Christmas tree.
When it comes to Christmas food... it was usually rather traditional Polish food, depending on the ingredients available. When older, once or twice we fastened on the 24th to better appreciate the evening meal. (It happened that I got really angry at my mum one of these times, because she wanted to call all family members before dining and having been preparing all day long wonderful food without eating the smallest bit I felt just too impatient to wait longer.) We usually have clear Barszcz with Uszka (the picture on the Uszka-link depicts it quite well), but the other dishes are quite depending -as I said earlier- on the circumstances and ingredients available. When in Poland, we usually had lots, LOTS, LOTS of different plates. Another tradition is to share Opłatek, usually a quite solemn moment.
Finally, when the first star is out shining, blinking, twinkling in the sky, the gift-opening starts. I believed for quite some time in Santa Claus, I even have the memory of seeing disappearing his sleigh in the night sky when I have been at my paternal grandma's.

Now, let's come to how I live Christmas in France. I won't comment on the year I've been volunteering, because it's too specific and I clearly can't remember any details, expect spending hours in the kitchen to reproduce for everyone something with the vague delight and deliciousness that is Barszcz. (Did I make some Uszka? I don't think so.)

Since in France, November and December are very study-intensive months, with most exams being in January. I usually don't manage to even notice when December rolled around - not to talk about preparing anything. We still don't have any decorations (just three, four small ornaments I got from a fellow Bookcrosser ♥), which has another reason: we are spending Christmas normally with M.'s family. Though I'd like some cloved oranges. His grandparents don't bother for a lot of decoration, if any. When it comes to Advent calenders, there seem to be none in the supermarket where we usually do our shopping, but mum happened to send us some this year again! (...und die Marzipankartoffeln wurden sofort von M. gekidnappt.)
The food here is different and before dining we are surprised (and do surprise) by gifts on everyone's plate. The food I associate with Frenchie Christmas is Foie Gras, snails (not that I manage to find the courage to try them) and a Bûche for dessert. The main dishes vary, usually with capon with chestnuts or Boudin blanc with apples . Often enough we have Ravioles du Dauphiné when down there, so I associate it with Christmas, too. I think it's rather a regional food than a seasonal one. Except that we are with family, it isn't so much anything special.

If you have any question, go ahead.

Vielleicht erinnert ihr euch an das Gewinnspiel von GTBHC von dem ich berichtet habe?

Ich kann's nicht fassen. Yay!

PS: Übrigens könnt ihr den GTBHC-Feed auf Dreamwidth verfolgen: keinezicktsoschoenwi_feed

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die". Just introduce us to some new things to read. - damned_colonial
You can read all Follow Friday-tagged entries on the latest page.

First off, I left this community, but maybe it is useful for others: perl.
In other news bento_picnic started to be slightly more active, which is just YAY! (Note to self: Remember to crosspost!)
Personally my involvement in exercise_every_day will enlighten those of you who felt spammed by my sporty updates. That's it community-wise.

But I importated a couple (=too many) of feeds during the last week to Dreamwidth:
jlistnew_feed: For the J-List shop. Beware of all the kinky items. I should probably check for a no-"adult"-items feed.
lenouveaujaponoblog_feed: En français, une copine partie pour une année étudier au Japon. Jalousie!
monbento_feed: Un blog sur... eh oui, bentô.
mademoisellem_feed: ...et encore un deuxième!

...und weil man irgendwann auch Frau werden will: ;)
innenundaussen_feed: Make-Up-Tests und Kommentare (Danke billie!)
pinkpueppi_feed: Ähnlich wie Innen&Aussen

Last but not least:
wyborczakraj_feed: Wiadomosci krajowe Gazety Wyborczej!

On another hand I was SO surprised to discover the Amazon Universal Wish List - to be able to add with one click items from other sites makes it so much easier to remember what one wanted to buy. At some point. Maybe. If there is some money left. You get the idea. :) (The only thing that bothers me slightly, that the last name doesn't seem to be hidden. Anyone knows about it or wants to check it for me?)
If you want to share your list, go ahead! (All comments will be screened!) Is there any wishlist-sharing community on Dreamwidth, by the way? Not that my reading list will probably cut a lot, when uni starts again, but... in the meanwhile?

...que les gâteaux que j'ai fait étaient bons pas mauvais. Personnellement je les ai trouvé un peu lourds, mais c'est peut-être que dans cette recette on prévoit 12 et non seulement 6 gâteaux. Pour la même raison la cuisson était quelques minutes plus longue que les 12 minutes de la recette. Pour les coupeaux de chocolat, on peut râper un peu d'une tablette non-terminée (c'est ce que j'ai fait). (Puis, pour les mesures de la farine... ne pas s'inquiéter si ça passe un peu au pif-o-mètre...) Ah, et puis j'ai utilisé un plateaux-moules en silicone (?), donc pas de papier, pas de beurre... ça se détache sans soucis.
Peut-être j'en referais demain, une copine a son anniversaire le dimanche, ensuite les vacances et on ne se reverra pas après (et ce vendredi qu'à la va-vite). Ca ferait peut-être une jolie surprise. (Et dans ce cas-là je ferai sûrement un post avec des photos, la dernière fois je n'ai pas mis de carte SD dans l'appareil photo... d'oh!)
Sinon, est-ce que vous avez des recettes plutôt simples, pour muffins ou gâteaux similaires (sans qu'il faut battre des œufs!), que vous aimez et voudriez bien partager avec moi?

If anyone wants me to translate the recipe, go ahead and ask, I'll do so.

Übrigens, ich hatte mal von wem eine Anleitung für AMERIKANER, hat die wer von euch? Die war ganz simpel und ich hatte Spass dran... ansonsten suche ich mir eine irgendwo, aber die die ich hatte war irgendwie toll. ^____^'