I have to say that had we become pregnant in Germany, I would not have the pleasure of experiencing a real deal Baby Shower of my own. As most of you know they do not throw Baby Showers in Germany partially because it’s just not their tradition but the other idea is because they are superstitious about bringing gifts to a baby before he/she is born. Its considered bad luck!
A while ago I threw a party in Germany for a friend who was expecting. Giving her the whole experience of an American Baby Shower! Go check it out if you missed it!
So, I was just ecstatic that the people I love were willing to throw me my own special party for these two little nuggets. Toblerone and I traveled to upstate NY to my family’s home right before Thanksgiving. The drive was atrocious…9 hours in a car with thigh high compression socks is not particularly the most comfortable way to go! But we arrived and were just so excited to be back with family! People came from all over and even from out of state to visit us! My brother and his clan came from West Virginia and my Aunt and Uncle and cousin came from Pennsylvania! I mean….THATS what I call love!!
My mom’s house was decorated in my absolute favorite theme: nautical! We decided to have this as a Jack and Jill party as well so we could see all of our friends and family at one time. People brought diapers for a diaper raffle and gifts as well. These boys are SPOILED!
It was just so amazing to be around family and to show them the belly we waited so long to have! Granted, I’ve now tripled in size since then!
We got so many amazing gifts and of course Toblerone was out of this world excited when he got his very own gift for the boys! Thank you to all our friends and family who came and gave us gifts for these boys. We are just so grateful! Having twins is certainly not cheap!!!
Going back to our little trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber since the snow is falling today and it’s just so incredibly Christmas-y feeling here, I wanted to share with you the Christmas museum we went to.
First of all, you will have to excuse some of the pictures which were taken with the iPhone. They don’t really like pictures to be taken so I was careful about it!
The museum starts from the origin of Christmas and gives a beautiful walk through the history of ornaments and decorating. Literally everything to do with Christmas is shown from the tree stands to the tree topper. I loved that they showed how over time the material used for ornaments changed with time. Some really beautiful things to see.
For those of you who don’t know…Christmas trees were first recorded here in Germany. That makes it extra special! In fact, the trees weren’t popular in the US until around the year 1850 or so. Germans sent the trees to relatives and to German soldiers around the world and this is how it came to be that many homes all over the world celebrate with a Christmas tree in their homes. And as the trees in homes began to pick up speed, the rich people had a tree for each person in the family. So having 5 trees up in your living room wasn’t unusual. Spoiled rotten….But maybe they were on to something! They decorated them with oranges, apples, breads, and cookies and the Children would help themselves to it whenever they wanted.
The Angel tree toppers have been made in the Nuremberg area for the past 300 years and legend has it that the angels were made by the doll maker in memory of his daughter who passed away.
Once the museum was over, it leads you right into a massive Christmas shop with thousands of over priced ornaments and decorations. (No pictures were allowed in here either…boring.) Really beautiful things but I wouldn’t dare pay 13 Euro for a small ornament. Not in this lifetime. But it was beautiful to see nonetheless and to see all the unusual decorations. I was searching for a typical German ornament but sadly no luck!
It was just so beautiful everywhere in there and it really helped to throw us right into the Christmas spirit!
For those of you who know me, I like to plan things out and if things don’t go perfectly, I may as well hide in a dark closet for the rest of my life. Since I’m typing this and clearly not from a dark closet I wanted to let you all know that the Easter dinner I had planned last minute went swimmingly. Literally was a HUGE success and now I’m ready to take on the world! Er….no, I’m not but I’m a little proud of myself. I had literally next to no Easter decorations so I made them myself or got creative!
I found some tea lights that were cute, bought some Easter grass and voila! That’s it! 🙂 The rest I had here at home and this place was popping with color!
The aftermath of awesomeness
The key to a successful dinner party is a combination of two things:
1. Decorations and place settings – gotta have these and they must look adorable/cute/classic/etc.
2. Prepare what you can the day before – I made up most of the things I needed the day before, washed fruits and veggies, cut them up, and so on. Seriously saved me on prep time the day of!
Spring has certainly sprung and I was feeling in the mood (unusual these days) to cater to people. Since Toblerone’s parents went away for Easter weekend, I decided to host a dinner with his two grandmother’s and his parents for when they returned. Every dinner I’ve been to with them, they make typical German food. Meat, noodles, and gravy. Thats usually the score. However, in my house, they don’t get German food. No sirree!
ON THE MENU
Strawberry walnut salad with a balsamic dressing – aka: The salad I didn’t want to end.
Creamy Basil Parmesan Chicken with lemon zest asparagus and homemade spaetzle (noodles for those of you who can’t speak German)
“Cracked eggs” – chocolate egg filled with mango and pineapple ice cream with a side of cheesecake filled strawberries topped with crushed graham crackers.
A lot of you will want the recipes, which you will get, however, I’m doing something a little special with the blog for 30 days or so. I’m doing a bit of a challenge. I’m calling it “The New and Improved Pinterest Challenge.” I saw a few other challenges that were SO lame. It was to do something inspired by Pinterest the first Monday of every month. How is that a challenge? I’m doing it daily, bitches! Now THATS a challenge.
So the recipes will be included in the challenge and for those who want to play along – you can do anything you find on Pinterest. Little or small, food or clothes, household items or crafts! Let the fun begin! 🙂
I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend with their friends/families/neighbors/fellow arsonists/ what have you. This year we didn’t do Easter baskets, instead we bought PS3 games and sat around in our PJ’s all day and played them. What has our life turned into?! If you want to check out how we did it last year, please go here.
The Diary of Sugar and Spice 