All I Want for Christmas

This year, as you may know, this is what my Christmas is consisting of.

See those amazing looking decorations on the tree?  They were given to me by a wonderful colleague of mine, who knew that I was deprived of decorations for my tree.  Can you see the pink cake in the middle?  That one is my favorite.

And those presents under the tree...  they are from some amazing people I like to call my family...

So I'm not completely void of Christmas this year... I have my tree, Skype, gifts from family members, work A.K.A. Christmas baking (of course), and a lobster sitting in my freezer.    It'll have to do.  I'll just have to avoid things like the song, "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and extremely joyful, heartfelt Christmas movies that remind me of home.  Let's just say I'm an emotional mess because a Christmas card from my Aunt caused me to burst into tears...

Moving on... Did you know that in Germany Christmas is technically on the 24th?  They open presents on this day and celebrate with their families on this day.  The 25th and 26th are the 1st Christmas day and the 2nd Christmas day.  Interesting...

I, however, have always loved the story that Santa comes Christmas Eve (the 24th) brings the gifts, eats cookies, drinks milk so that when you wake on Christmas morning (the 25th) you are surprised to find the gifts under the tree and all you cookies gone.  It never gets old.

The last few days at work have been pretty easy going.  With everything prepared for Christmas, we haven't had crazy days.  However, this will end tomorrow and continue until next week (New Years).  The schedule is already out for New years, and I begin the 30th at 6:30pm and will work through the night until about 8/9am New Years Eve.  Crazy... I know...  This is all for Berliners, the wonderful tasting filled doughnuts that are traditional to New Years.  Last year, we made about 60,000... who knows what the number will be this year...

With that, this song never gets old... and a family favorite.