Dinner for One

As I noted in a blog last year, watching the British comedy sketch "Dinner for One" is a New Year's Eve tradition in Germany. The film is broadcast on a number of television stations at different times during the day. Here is a link in case you want to join the annual fun.

Weihnachten 2011

Christmas Tree with lighted candles

The candles on the Christmas tree were lit last night in accordance with the Christmas Eve tradition in this part of the world. We did make a small compromise to tradition this year. While Magda's family tradition holds that the tree is not even put up until Christmas Eve, this year we put the tree up 5 days before. But it was not decorated until Christmas Eve. That was done just to eliminate the need to go out on the streets on the last shopping day before Christmas.

Homemade presents for 2011

Homemade Liqueur

 We did make some homemade gifts for friends and family this year. Three types of liqueur were bottled. These were made from red vineyard peaches, black currants and pears. We were particularly happy with the pear liqueur, probably because were did not have high expectations. But it turned out with a very nice pear flavor.

As mentioned in the previous blog, we made Christstollen according to the recipe out of the 1939 cookbook. But that was not the only baking we did. We put together packages containing 8 types  of cookies. These included Tollhouse cookies because, as every knows, they are Santa's favorite (although they are not seen here in Germany much).

Tollhouse

Snickerdoodles

I also did Snickerdoodles this year as another example of a traditional American cookie. Yes, I know that the Wikipedia page for Snickerdoodles claim a German origin for these cookies, but I don't buy it. I have never seen Snickerdoodles in a German cookbook, nor are they easy to find on Germany cooking web sites. When I have found something call Snickdoodles, they are quite different, containing walnuts and raisins, than the simple sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon and sugar that is typical in the USA.

Magda is a big fan of shortbread, so those had to be included. And what would Christmas be without some cut out butter cookies?.

Add the these some traditional German cookies. Lebkuchen almost defines this time of year in Germany. The ones we made are, like our stollen, based of a recipe from a 1939 Dr. Oetker cookbook. Honigkuchen uses the same spices as Lebkuchen, but uses honey as the sweetener and does not use much ground almonds. Heidesand is a personal favorite. It is a butter cookie with a little marzipan mixed in. They are formed by rolling the dough into a log, covering the outside of the log with sugar and slicing off the cookies. And Schmaltznüsse are a shortbread cookie where half the butter is replaced by lard. In this case, coca powder was added to half the recipe to create the "black and white" Schmalrznüsse.

Frohe Weihnachten!

Butter cookies and Shortbread

Homigküchen

Heidesand

Lebküchen

Black and White Schmalzmüsse

Making Christstollen, a November Tradition

Despite the increasing number and size of the Christmas displays that have been appearing in stores since the beginning of September, I have managed to avoid thinking too much about the coming Christmas season. However, Mid-November is time to start thinking about Christmas baking. While Stollen, the German sweetened bread with nuts, raisins and citron that is very popular at Christmas, can be eaten fresh, it actually is better when stored for a few weeks. The general rule of thumb is to bake Stollen at least 4-6 weeks before it is to be served. So now is the right time to start baking it.

I use a recipe that I have adapted from the Dr. Oetker's Schulkochbuch (School Cookbook) from 1939. Dr. Oetker is sort of the Betty Crocker of Germany. Maybe even bigger in Germany than Betty Crocker is in America since in addition to a historic line of cookbooks, the company also sells cooking ingredients. This year, the Schulkochbuch is celebrating 100 years of publication with its 10th edition. Each edition is a bit different, reflecting the tastes of its time. I like using the 1939 edition (the 3rd edition) because the amounts of sugar and fat used in its recipes are much less than a recipe from current cookbooks. I suspect this is because these ingredients were much more expensive at that time.

The recipe is called "Simple Christstollen". I'll first give the recipe from the book (not a literal translation) and then provide additional insights to the recipe as well as some of the variations that I've used.

Simple Christsrollen

100g Schmaltz

100g Butter

125g Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 container of Dr. Oetker's Lemon Backoil (Backoil is explained below)

500g Flour

1 package Dr. Oetker's Backin

1/4 cup Milk at room temperature

125g Raisins

50g Currants

50g Citron

50g chopped Almonds or Walnuts

• In one bowl, mix the fat, sugar, egg and backoil until creamy.
• In another bowl, mix the flour and the backin.
• To the fat/sugar mixture mix in 3/4 of the flour mixture and the milk to form a wet dough.
• Knead in the raisins, currants, citron, nuts and remaining flour until the dough accepts the remaining flour.
• Form a stollen and place on a flour covered baking sheet.
• Optionally after baking, drizzle with a little additional butter and sprinkle with powder sugar.
• Backing time: 1-1.5 hours in middle hot oven.

Schmaltz is rendered pork fat. It is cheaper than butter and doesn't have a distinct taste. So mixing with butter is quite frugal. Using all butter is fine, as would using margarine.

Backoil is flavoring that is used in baking in Germany. Personally, I find it artificial tasting, especially the lemon and orange flavors. So I prefer using the zest of one lemon.

Backin is German baking powder. It is sold in packages containing 5 teaspoons. This is different than the American baking powder and should not be substituted for each other. Some specialty grocery stores will have packets of Dr. Oetker's Backin (the Andersons in Columbus carries them, or you can find it on Amazon). If not, a reasonable substitute is a 2 to 1 mixture of cream of tartar and backing soda.

A lot of people prefer yeast as the rising agent (Magda is one of these). I've used both fresh and dried yeast in place of the backin quite often in this recipe, but doing so means giving the yeast some time to work. I give the yeast a good start by mixing it with the warm (but not hot) milk, and a little bit of the sugar and flour from the recipe about an hour before getting started. This mixture is added with the 3/4 of the flour mixture to form the initial dough. Once fruit and remaining flour is kneaded together, I leave the ball of dough to rise in a bowl covered with a towel for about 2 hours. Then after forming the Stollen, I cover them with a towel and let rise for an additional hour before baking.

Most any dried fruit can be used in place or in addition to the raisins and currants.For example, I've used dried cranberries several times. I do like to soften the fruit a little by soaking in a liquid for a couple of hours. Rum or orange liqueur would be traditional liquids. Orange juice would also be OK, if staying away from alcohol is important. 

Forming a stollen simply means rolling the dough in to a thick oval, the length of the loaf that you want, and lengthwise folding one side of the oval over the other. Let the bottom part hang out a little bit, you don't quite want the top part to cover it completely.

The recipe makes a 1 kg (a little over 2 lbs) Stollen, which is a pretty good size loaf. 2 half kilogram (1 lb) Stollen may make more sense if you are planning to serve groups of 3 to 5. In the pictures below, I made 4 small Stollen that would be just right as a gift to a single person or a couple.

For a number of reasons, bake temperature and time are always a problem when using old recipes. The idea is to bake until the Stollen are golden brown. I use the over and under heat setting on our oven. What I do is pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C, and then turn the oven down to 175 C when I put the Stollen in. Bake time for the 1 kg Stollen is 40 to 45 minutes. If you make 2 or 4 smaller Stollen, the bake time will be a little less. Obviously, if you use convection, you should reduce temperatures.

Too Early for Me

While doing my shopping rounds last Saturday, I stopped in the local Aldi for a few staples. As a rounded to corner to head towards the paper goods, I was confronted by a display 1.3 meter wide, 3 meters long and 1.5 meter high of Christmas cookies and other backed goods.

Taken from Norma's Ad starting Sept. 12

The Sunday, I packed up the week-end ad for another grocery store in the area, Norma, and they were advertising Christmas cookies. You can see part of the ad here. Yes, those are Christmas tree ornaments behind those Nürnberger Lebkuchen.

Maybe it just me and others have a driving need for lebkuchen in early September. Or maybe I'm becoming a bit more like Ebenezer Scrooge as I age. But I for one can wait until at least November before feeling it necessary to satisfy my annual cravings for Nürnberger Lebkuchen.

Karneval in Koblenz

The days prior to Ash Wednesday and Lent have different names in various parts of Germany. In and around Koblenz, they are called Karneval. Although the Karneval season officially begins each each at 11:11 on 11/11. This is when Karneval prince and princess are anounced and the Karneval clubs begin their planning for Karneval celebrations, including figuring out their theme for the coming celebrations, preparing their costumes and float, and planning their parties.

The actual Karneval celebrations begin the Thursday before Lent with "Schwerdonnerstag" (Hard Thursday). Many businesses close at noon, schools arrange in-service days so that the students don't have to be in school. Things begin with a symbolic storming of the city hall by the Karneval clubs. With the club members in costume, firing confetti cannons, the Karneval Prince demands the key to the city from the mayor. Women take the lead the rest of the day. Some women will go around carrying scissors, cutting off any ties worn by men on this day. At the parties later, women choose their dance partners.In fact, some folks refer to this day as Weibekarneval (Wife's Karveval).

Parties continue on Friday and Saturday. The foods most associated with this time of year are Berliners and Naunzen. Berliners would be recognized by Americans as a jelly doughnut, round pieces of yeast dough that are deep-fried, filled with jelly and sprinkled with sugar. Naunzen use the same dough as Berliners and like Berliners are fried and sprinkled with sugar, but unlike Berliners, are irregularly shaped and are not filled. By the way, Berliners are root of the Urban Legend that JFK called himself a "doughnut" when he said "Ich bin ein Berliner" before the Berlin Wall in 1963. In truth and in that context, there was no confusion for Germans. A Berliner is also a resident of Berlin and use of the adjective "ein" placed an emphases on his oneness with the people of Berlin. Exactly what he was trying to say. It remains a moment remembered in German history books and has a display devoted to it at Bonn's "House of German History".

On Sunday, parades get added to the entertainment. In our village of Wallersheim, there is a kids parade. Although I'm not sure what makes it a kids parade, other than the selection of the parades prince and princess, who were young kids. There are more adults than kids in both the parade and audience. A good percentage of the audience, young and old, are in a costume. And certainly, beer and wine are flowing in both groups. As the parade passes, everyone waves a hand over their head and shouts the greeting for Koblenz, "Oula" (in other parts of Germany the greeting would be "Hela").

Whereas in other parts of Germany, the celebrations are still rooted in the idea of scaring away the evil spirits of winter (see last years post on Fastnacht in southern Germany). The Karneval parades in this part of the country tend to be about political satire or current topics. Sort of reminds me of the Do Da parades on the 4th of Jully in the USA. This is one reason that even today many of the clubs still dress in costumes inspired by French or Prussian military from the 1700s. Karneval was used  as an opportunity to make some fun of their occupiers back then. This year, the current topic in Koblenz is the the upcoming national garden show, BUGA. So it is no surprise that to see a lot of costumes and floats with flower themes in this year's parade.

Smaller towns and villages have parades on either Sunday or Tuesday. Rosenmontag, the Monday before Ash Wednesday, is the parade day for the larger towns. Cologne's and Mainz's parades are shown on TV. In Koblenz, the parade attracted 100,000 watchers this year. Prior to the parade, the downtown was closed off to traffic and special buses carried people to and from the parade.

New Year's Eve Tradition: Dinner for One

Dinner for One is a New Year's Eve tradition in Germany. It is actually from British TV, but it is played on several German TV stations at different times during the evening. This video has a 2 minute introduction in German, before the actual show begins.

Signs of Weihnachten: Weihnachtsbaum

According to the custom of Magda's family, we decorated our Christmas tree the morning of Christmas Eve. Once again we went with the straw ornaments, some of which Magda and her sister made as kids. Plus a few Santa Claus ornaments made of oyster shells by friends from Hilton Head. The lights are real beeswax candles. Of course this was on a real tree. Artificial trees are not unknown here, but there use seems restricted to businesses and not in the homes.

While a few people put up their Christmas trees earlier in the month, a most seem to wait like we do. In fact many of the stands that sell Christmas trees didn't even open until the beginning or middle of last week. Often these stands are run by a family that grows the trees on their farm in the Eiffel. They cut their crop of 50 or 100 trees, bring it into town and sell it out in a couple of days.

The tree stays up at least until after Jan. 6th, the "Tag der Heiligen Drei Könige"(day of the three kings). Some will keep them until Lichtmess on Feb. 3rd. Traditionally in addition the Christmas tree, "Krippen" (nativity scenes) are also taken down on this day.

Signs of Weihnachten: Weihnachtsmarkt

We lit candle number four on the advents wreath on Sunday. That means there won't be any more Sundays before Christmas.

We did take a little time out on Saturday to visit a Weihnachtsmarkt. Last year, we had heard from a neighbor that Ahrweiler had a pretty and pleasant market that was worth a visit. Ahrweiler is a small town on the Ahr river about 30-45 minutes from us. The Ahr river is Germany's northern most wine  region. It is know for it's red wines that rarely get exported, being mostly bought up by folks from Bonn or Cologne that visit on week-ends. We use to hike here quite a bit, but it had been several years since we were here. And I don't recall spending much time exploring Ahrweiler.

So it was with some surprise that we discovered this well-persevered town. There is still a defensive wall around the town, a legacy of medieval times that has been restored and/or rebuilt. Inside the wall are pedestrian only streets with half-timbered houses on either side.

The main part of the market was in the marktplatz with Ahrweiler's the Gothic church St. Laurentius providing a backdrop.

The Ahrweiler Weihnachtsmarkt is a week-end only market, so it does attract the kinds of crowds that markets in the larger cities attract. This was locals and people on a week-end getaway enjoying the day shopping the stores in the town, checking out the booths in the market, and having a glass of glüwein while standing by a fire and chatting with friends. It was a pleasant atmosphere.

The other nice thing about this market is that a number of the booths were selling local or handcrafted products. So often, Weihnachtsmarkts are filled with people selling the same products that you can buy in the store, and often without much of a discount. There just are not enough handcrafters to handle all of the Weihnachtsmarkts that have sprung up in the last few years. Ahrweiler had enough to be interesting.

Signs of Weihnachten: Getting in the Mood

Last Sunday we lit the third candle on our Advent wreath. One more candle to go. I suppose that should be a pretty good hint that Christmas is comming.

We also brought out the Christmas pyramid this week and got some candles. That are a couple of videos of the pyramid in action that I've attached to the end of the blog entry.

Magda's tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. That is not a problem this year since her school doesn't let out until the 23rd this year. I can't imagine that we would try to put one up much before then anyway.

But I have to say that the thing that has done the most to make me become aware of the upcoming holidays was the purchase of some tea last week. Of course, we are not talking just any tea here. We talking about Weihnachts tea. This is a black tea (Ceylon) with cinnamon, orange peel and almonds added to give the taste and smell of the season. Weihnachts tea is a long-standing tradition here in Germany and also in Great Britain this time of year. It is funny how the taste or smell of something can make you more aware of an event than all the things you see around you.

 

 

Signs of Weihnachten: Starting the Countdown

This year the real countdown to Weihnachten started on November 28, the 4th Sunday before Christmas. The custom is to set up a wreath with four candles. Each Sunday leading up to Christmas, a new candle is lit. This picture was taken last Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent.

This is also the week-end that the house exteriors were decorated. Since this is a neighborhood with a lot of apartment buildings, mostly this involved placing lights in the windows. But some people do go a bit further that that. But by comparison to the US, the decorations are pretty tame.

December 1 begins another count down. That is for the advents calendar. Typical Advents calendars involve a narrow cardboard box that can be hung on a wall. There are 24 numbered doors in the box. Each day, one of the doors are opened to reveal a treat. Once all the doors are opened, it is Christmas Eve.

Our Advents calendar this year is a little different. We slide out a piece of marzipan each day from the bottom, revealing a new fact about Weihnachten printed on the inside of the box. And, oh yeah, leaving us with a piece of marzipan to enjoy.

December 6 was Saint Nicholas Day. Saint Nicholas lived during the 3rd century in present day Turkey. A child of wealthy parents who died while Saint Nicholas was still quite young, he used his wealth in secret gift-giving to deserving people. So today, kids in Germany wake up on December 6th to find small gifts (typically sweets) at their front door. Actually not just kids find gifts. People will door small gifts at the door of friends that have helped them through the year. We actually took a Saint Nicholas run the evening of December 5th to drop off some bags of cookies at the door of 3 such friends.

Signs of Weihnachten: September thru middle of November

Thought it might be interesting to take a look at the build up to Weihnachten (Christmas) that we are experiencing here. To do that though, it is necessary to go back a couple of months. The first signs of Weihnachten started showing up in early September this year. That was when the grocery stores here put up big displays of Christmas cookies, candies and cakes. Lebkuchen (Germany's gingerbread), zimtsterne (cinimmon stars). spritz cookies, and, of course, stollen began filling the shopping carts of Germany.

Groceries followed in early October with displays of baking goods. This was combined with advertisements about the importance of starting your Weihnachten baking early. The things offered for baking are truly amazing, and they are in even the cheapest of grocery stores. Hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, blocks of marzipan, melting chocolate, pre-made spice mixes for lebkuchen and spekulatius, hirschhorn (an ingredient for springerle), pre-made marzipan cookie decorations to made just a few of the items.

The department stores got into the act in mid-October putting up their displays of Weihnacten decorations.

Mid-November, began the big push of table decorations. Holiday themed table clothes, napkins and other decorations hit the market, as well and opportunities to buy new vine glasses, tableware, and dishes for the holiday table.

Five weekends before Weihnachten, the Weihnachtmarkts opened. In Koblenz, the Weihnachtmarkt is located in three marketplaces in the Altstadt (old part of town). It seems more about food and the sale of manufactured items, than about individuals selling handmade items that was the basis for the tradition. But still it brings some light and fun to the town in the evening at a time when it is getting dark at 4:00 pm. Plus there are an occasional shop that offering the kind of handmade items that you expect to find.

Fastnacht

The celebrations that occur in the days prior to Ash Wednesday go by various names but have slightly different customs that we know as Mardi Gras have their counterparts in the Catholic areas of Germany. The name and customs associated with these celebrations change from region to region. For example, in Bavaria it is called Fasching.

In the middle Rhine that include Koblenz and the major celebrations in Cologne and Mainz, Karnival is the name used. The celebrations are filled with political satire. The predominate costume is that of a 18th century soldier, an attempt to make fun of the French soldiers that occupied this areas at that time.

In Schwarzwald, the celebrations are much more influenced by ancient pagan efforts to scare away the evil spirits of winter. The costumes are much more attempts to change the shape of the person wearing it. They include the use of carved wooden masks and clothing to change the person in to an animal or a witch or some other beast that the spirits would think twice about dealing with. The slideshow above is actually a link to my web album containing the pictures of the parade in Neuenburg, a small town in on the edge of the Schwarzwald, that we watched Sunday.

Einen guten Rutsch!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone.

In Germany, people wish each other a good slide into the new year -- Einen guten Rutsch in neues Jahr!

Merry Christmas

A Merry Christmas to all. Here are a couple of pictures of our tree with the candles burning. Magda was tring to figure when she made some of these straw ornaments. She figures that it was at least 45 years ago.

That got me to thinking, if something put togeather with straw and thread can last that long, image what she could have done with duct tape.

Our Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree on the 22nd. Magda feels that was a couple of days early. Her tradition is to put it up on the 24th. In general, the tree goes up later that in the U.S. Many of the Christmas tree stands did not even open until the 14th.

The type of tree that we choose was one called a "Nordmanntanne". They are a popular choice here in Germany. The tall tree tip and the openness at the top helps simulate the head and shoulders of a person. Like all the trees that we have seen here, the needles are relatively short that are soft and flat. Other types of trees that are sold here include blue spruce and firs. Have not seen any of the long needle verities such as scotch pine that are popular in Columbus.

We decided to be a little old fashioned by using straw ornaments and real candles. Magda tells me that she used to make these as a kid. They involve lay out pieces of straw in a pattern on a board and pinning the straw in place. Then thread is weaved around the straw to hold it all together allowing the pins can be removed and the ornament placed on the tree. You can see why it was (and still is) popular, the light brown of the straw does stand out against the dark green of the tree. Some of these are ones that Magda made several years ago, so the color does not darken with time.

We did watch a program discussing if an artificial tree is a better choice, strictly from an "environmental point"/"decreasing carbon footprint" of view. Certainly, looking at the initial purchase, the real tree wins out. These trees exist only for this purpose, and they will be replaced by another tree that will convert CO2 to oxygen. So the carbon impact is pretty much a wash. Some carbon cost related to fertilizer. And of course, there is the transportation from the farm to the tree stand and from there back home. Buying local will help here. The artificial tree requires energy in the manufacture of the raw materials as well as the tree . If the tree uses plastic, that involves using petroleum not required for a real tee. Plus there are the transportation costs which are likely longer that a real tree.

But of course, an artificial tree can be used multiple years, reducing the transportation cost over time. So when is the break even point? According to these experts you would have to used the artificial tree at least 17 years to lower the environmental impact to that of buying a real tree every year.

Weihnachtsmarkt Freiburg

Freiburg's Wiehnachtsmarkt was the nicest that I was able to visit this year. It is situated on three martplatz in the Altstadt. The largest of these is in front of the Rathouse (City hall). The other two were not far away.

In all candor, Freiburg might be my favorite city in Germany. If I could choose a German city to live in, Freiburg would be up there. First of all, it is a picturesque city, with a large Altstadt, some remaining city gates, and the Gothic Munster (i.e. large church but did not receive cathedral status as a bishop never used it as his headquarters). All of which have been well preserved and maintain. It might be the cleanest city in Germany, which is saying something. The downtown area that includes the Altstadt is quite active, commercially.  Further, it is set between the Rhine and the Black forest in the southern part of German that is known for it's good weather and fine food. France is not far, nor is Switzerland. It is a university town. That and the size of the city helps support a good arts community. Plus, it has a great public transport system including light rail, and bus. Freiburg is on a main line of the Deutsche Bahn, so you have great access to the train system.

What makes the Weihnachtsmarkt enjoyable was the sitting in the Altstadt, plus the fact that so many of the booth had hand made items like the carved wooded figures in the picture.

My personal favorite booth was the one that sold springerle presses. These press were a little different than I had previously seen as they were made of clay rather than carved out of wood. The guy at the booth explained that with clay, they can offer more detain in the form than with wood. Plus they are easier to clean. The detail and variety of these forms was truly amazing. They have a website a www.springerle.com where there are detailed pictures of the forms.

Weihnachtsmarkt Koblenz

Koblenz also has a Weihnacktsmarkt. Koblenz does have an active tourist trade, due to the passenger barges that travel the Rhine throughout the year. The barges dock along the Mossell, along the Altstadt (Old City).

Koblenz's Weihnachtsmarkt actually takes up 3 different market squares in the Altstadt. Being separated takes a little from the experience, making the markt seem small. Plus the fact that most of what is sold at the stands is factory produced. Of course, there are still plenty of opportuites to take in a little glühwein, or other typical food for a Weihnachtsmarkt. But sorry to say, it just doesn't have the feel of Trier's markt.

Weihnachtsmarkt Trier

Trier, is one of my favorite cities in Germany. Although Trier is Germany oldest city, what makes it interesting for me is that it was one of Europe's most important cites north of the Alps early in its history. As a result, there a buildings and ruins from Roman, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque.

When I heard that Trier's Weihnachtsmarkt was one of the nicest in the area, this was enough reason to hop on a train for another visit.

Nürnberg's Christkindlesmarkt is Germany's oldest and most well known Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas market). This tradition has spread throughout Germany. Now every city of any size or that depends on the tourist trade has such a market. They do provide a bit of light and fun during the dark days of December (remember that we are actually north of Columbus, resulting in darkness earlier here).

Trier's market is not huge, but it has a nice setting in the city's main market place, surrounded by buildings from various periods in the city's long history. In addition, most of the cities pedestrian area is lighted by decorative stars. The market had stands selling hand made Christmas decorations and other articles. Some mass produced articles were on sale as well. There was a merry-go-round for the young kids. And, of course, several booths selling typical foods of Weinachtsmarkts, various wursts, reibekuchen (potato pancakes), and glühwein (mulled wine)

First Whirl of the Pyramid

We gave our Christmas pyramid its first whirl yesterday. Here's some short videos.

From 11-29-2009

From 11-29-2009

From 11-29-2009

Christmas Pyramid

Well I couldn't resist. I succumbed.

The stores here, like the US, have been pushing Christmas earlier and earlier. We started to see Christmas advertisements soon after I arrived, but things really picked up the last week of October. Stores are all stocked with Christmas decorations and goodies. But I've been trying to hold out for the more-or-less official beginning of the Christmas season which, in Germany this year is November 20th. This is the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent. This is when the Christmas markets open. This custom that started in Nuremberg now can be found in most every major city in Germany.

In any case, while browsing the ads one Sunday, I commented on a cheap Christmas pyramid offered by one store, saying that I wouldn't mind getting a pyramid for this year. One that was hand made, but not one of those huge, multi-tier ones. Just a nice one.

Magda didn't say much at the time, but she must have liked the idea because the next time we were in town she pointed to a store across the street and said "let's go in there". In my defense, "there" was not a store that was part of the Christmas hype. It was a small store that specializes in wooden objects including kids toys, decorations, and kitchen utensils. Some are machine made, but most of the decorations are hand-made. Included among the decorations was a shelf of hand-made Christmas pyramids.

We settled on one, that was not the cheapest or the smallest, but it was far from the other end of the spectrum. We liked it because it was not overly colorful, but rather focused on the wood. What do you think? Did we make a good choice? Of course, the idea is that as the candles burn, the hot air rises and spins the propellers. This in turn cases the figures to rotate. We have packed in away for now, but we will soon take it out and "give it a whirl", so to speak.