Heilig Abend meets Bob and Ruth

Heilig Abend is German for Christmas Eve meaning Holy Evening in German. This is when we celebrate Christmas, and it's probably one of my favorite days of the year. As I mentioned before, I often times get homesick during Christmas time, simply because I associate this holiday with being together with my family, and certain traditions.

This Christmas Henry and I were not able to fly out to Germany, and ended up instead, in Virginia with Henry's parents. I declared before we agreed to come that I want full dictatorship for Christmas Eve, meaning I wanted to be able to say what we'd do etc. I just wanted it to be as close to "home" as I could get it.

Well, it wasn't that easy at first. Henry's parents have been quite busy, and also had tickets booked to fly out early on Christmas day (7am exactly, and we had the privilege to get up at 4 am to drive them to the airport) to Texas for our family reunion. In other words, Christmas preparations were not really on the top of their list for "to do" things.

Ruth had put up a bit of decoration here and there, but since I was used to a manic decoration frenzy from home, where anything but the kitchen sink was covered in some sort of festive decoration, it seemed rather scarce to me. Also, there were no candles and no tree,...something hard to imagine for my Christmas obsessed mother. While we spent a fun day shopping the Saturday before Christmas Eve, and overall had a nice time, playing games, talking, and watching TV etc. I could not help feel homesick when I woke up on Christmas Eve morning, realizing that the day would be spend without a tree or lights, with only a small group of people, my family far away, no snow, no traditional Christmas meal, and...well,...it just wasn't home.

In the morning I called my mom and told her about the sad circumstances of our Christmas. Obviously, the thought of not even having a tree, devastated her. The festive mood of the day didn't seem to be there. Where was the music? Where were Bob and Ruth? And where was my darn Christmas Tree???

But then...it changed. Henry had taken off and decided to get me a tree, so I wouldn't be so sad. Lucky enough, if you buy them that late, a real tree only costs $5. He set it up and put in some lights, and turned on Christmas music while I started cooking my German dinner (I was trying to get as close to home with the food as I could). When we finally sat down for dinner in the evening, the food was actually really good, except for the roast which I put into Bob's charge. It wasn't done. Oh well...

I still had hopes that the Christmas spirit would set in. Around six o'clock we sat down, with the tree lit, candles lit, a fire in the fire places, and plates full of German chocolates in front of us. We spent a good hour or so singing Christmas songs, and that really brought in the spirit for me, and Christmas was taking a real turn. We shared our thoughts about loved ones from our families, what Christ meant to us, and eventually listened to "Holy Night or A Christmas Truce", a story about a truce during WWI, which was really moving. I think we all felt peace in our hearts, and the true spirit of Christmas with us as we pondered and shared what joy has come into our lives because of Christ. Then we dumped out our stockings, and opened all our presents.

I think we all had a great time, and Henry's parents really enjoyed all my little and big traditions from home and how we celebrate Christmas. I enjoyed myself, too even though I missed my family.

Overall I just realized how important Christmas is to me, and how much I value and treasure certain traditions as they really bring in the Christmas spirit. I really just love Heilig Abend.