#29 Boston - Ding Dong - December 23, 2006
Ladies and Gentlemen - I have a door bell! A functioning door bell!! Ding Dong - Have you ever heard such a sweet sound? It has a very nice chime, loud enough to hear too, which in my case is very good. Apparently my hearing is not too great these days. Rick, Denise and I today grabbed some grub at "Aram's House of Pizza" down the street, when Aram himself wished Rick "Happy Holidays" whereas I thought he said to Rick "half-an-hour". I thought it a tad strange that the food came with instruction on how fast or not fast to eat it, but then again, Aram ain't from around these parts.
The electrician came to visit this week to finish up at least five projects in the house - among them the door bell - and then left me with a nice pre-Christmas bill of 700 dallahs. Great eh?? Well, I am not complaining actually, they did solid work, they fixed everything we asked them for and they are good people, the Coleman's. Kevin owns the shop with his three brothers, they all look alike, hard to tell which one is which and they are all in their late 60s I believe. The store is one of the many typical family-owned businesses in my neighborhood. They are super reliable and what's even better they fix quite a few things that your average electrician wouldn't. Case in point - I used to hear little critter footsteps above my bathroom thinking somehow a squirrel had gotten in and spent some cozy time in our house. Turns out it was a bird who came in through the bathroom vent, and Kevin, the good man, fixed that as well. My carbon-monoxide detector is working, the hallway light has a timer, all the fuses are checked, loose wires are connected. One stop shopping right, can't beat that!
"Tis the night before Christmas" - at least here for me. According to German tradition the gifts are exchanged on Heiligabend (Christmas evening), so the night before Christmas for me is always the 23rd. It is quiet in the house, except for a few timid chirps from that sweet little bird of mine. Rick and Denise came by this afternoon for a little Christmas celebration. Knowing us, you probably guessed that a hike was part of the program and you are indeed right if you had imagined so. The merry little group headed out to the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain (http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/). It has been around for quite some time, 1872 to be exact, and was made possible with some monies left by James Arnold, a pretty well-off whaling merchant from New Bedford, Massachusetts. This is a very cool place, it is part of the "Emerald Necklace" - a series of parks lined up like pearls on a string in the Boston area. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, a quite renowned landscape architect (Central Park in New York City was among his many accomplishments). Its grounds cover 265 acres (107 hectares) and the arboretum features more than 13,000 individual plants, some pretty interesting stuff for those of us who are botanically inclined.
After a lovely hike at the Arnold (pictures to come next week) and the above mentioned stint at Aram's where we introduced Rick to the miracle food that is gyros (and no, it is not pronounced "tschairo"), the group of three plus two (Phoebe and Oscar) enjoyed some nice tea and cookies, exchanged a few gifts or so, and listened to Ella Fitzgerald sing Christmas songs.
Rick and Denise also got a lecture in German Christmas traditions, for starters we do not have the whole reindeer and Santa Bit on Christmas as some of you may know. The "Christkind" (christ child) comes on Christmas Eve to bring the gifts, without the help of a sleigh. Don't ask, I don't know how the kid does it, never questioned it. The door used to open, we felt a draft (aaah, the spirit of Christmas), a little bell rang, and boom the presents were there. Worked for me.
Now Santa, or St. Nick (Nikolaus) comes a bit earlier, December 6th. Now this my friends, is a scary experience. This guy, dressed up in a Santa suit shows up, accompanied by an even scarier dude, Knecht Ruprecht (he is called Schmutzli in Switzerland). They have this big black book, and believe me, in that book is listed pretty much everything bad (and good) you have committed over the course of the year. As a kid, this scared the living daylights out of me. How does he know? For the good stuff you got praise, but for the bad stuff - well that's where Ruprecht, the enforcer, came in, he had a bundle of twigs on him, and was not afraid to use it. Sheesh!!! When the whole ordeal was over you got a stocking full of stuff, but boy at what price. Scared me every year. Of course, our parents stopped the whole ordeal at an age when we could have figured out that Santa was some local guy that was hired to scare kids into behaving good (at least for a month or so after the holiday) and they were the ones who slipped him the 411 on our shenanigans. I think the Swiss take it even a step further, instead of being tapped with the bundle of twigs, Schmutzli threatens to stuff you into a sack and carry you off into the woods for a year.
Dear family and non-family friends, new and old, I wanted to wish you a very enjoyable holiday season, be good to each other, will you? Pray for snow, the only snow we have in New England at this time is on top of Mt Washington, but then again you can find it there in June, so really, it does not count.
I will be spending Christmas at my friend Stephanie's family in Norfolk, a 45 minute drive outside of Boston. Oscar will come along as well, and chirp a few tunes for the occasion. Merry, merry.
pet:)
The electrician came to visit this week to finish up at least five projects in the house - among them the door bell - and then left me with a nice pre-Christmas bill of 700 dallahs. Great eh?? Well, I am not complaining actually, they did solid work, they fixed everything we asked them for and they are good people, the Coleman's. Kevin owns the shop with his three brothers, they all look alike, hard to tell which one is which and they are all in their late 60s I believe. The store is one of the many typical family-owned businesses in my neighborhood. They are super reliable and what's even better they fix quite a few things that your average electrician wouldn't. Case in point - I used to hear little critter footsteps above my bathroom thinking somehow a squirrel had gotten in and spent some cozy time in our house. Turns out it was a bird who came in through the bathroom vent, and Kevin, the good man, fixed that as well. My carbon-monoxide detector is working, the hallway light has a timer, all the fuses are checked, loose wires are connected. One stop shopping right, can't beat that!
"Tis the night before Christmas" - at least here for me. According to German tradition the gifts are exchanged on Heiligabend (Christmas evening), so the night before Christmas for me is always the 23rd. It is quiet in the house, except for a few timid chirps from that sweet little bird of mine. Rick and Denise came by this afternoon for a little Christmas celebration. Knowing us, you probably guessed that a hike was part of the program and you are indeed right if you had imagined so. The merry little group headed out to the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain (http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/). It has been around for quite some time, 1872 to be exact, and was made possible with some monies left by James Arnold, a pretty well-off whaling merchant from New Bedford, Massachusetts. This is a very cool place, it is part of the "Emerald Necklace" - a series of parks lined up like pearls on a string in the Boston area. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, a quite renowned landscape architect (Central Park in New York City was among his many accomplishments). Its grounds cover 265 acres (107 hectares) and the arboretum features more than 13,000 individual plants, some pretty interesting stuff for those of us who are botanically inclined.
After a lovely hike at the Arnold (pictures to come next week) and the above mentioned stint at Aram's where we introduced Rick to the miracle food that is gyros (and no, it is not pronounced "tschairo"), the group of three plus two (Phoebe and Oscar) enjoyed some nice tea and cookies, exchanged a few gifts or so, and listened to Ella Fitzgerald sing Christmas songs.
Rick and Denise also got a lecture in German Christmas traditions, for starters we do not have the whole reindeer and Santa Bit on Christmas as some of you may know. The "Christkind" (christ child) comes on Christmas Eve to bring the gifts, without the help of a sleigh. Don't ask, I don't know how the kid does it, never questioned it. The door used to open, we felt a draft (aaah, the spirit of Christmas), a little bell rang, and boom the presents were there. Worked for me.
Now Santa, or St. Nick (Nikolaus) comes a bit earlier, December 6th. Now this my friends, is a scary experience. This guy, dressed up in a Santa suit shows up, accompanied by an even scarier dude, Knecht Ruprecht (he is called Schmutzli in Switzerland). They have this big black book, and believe me, in that book is listed pretty much everything bad (and good) you have committed over the course of the year. As a kid, this scared the living daylights out of me. How does he know? For the good stuff you got praise, but for the bad stuff - well that's where Ruprecht, the enforcer, came in, he had a bundle of twigs on him, and was not afraid to use it. Sheesh!!! When the whole ordeal was over you got a stocking full of stuff, but boy at what price. Scared me every year. Of course, our parents stopped the whole ordeal at an age when we could have figured out that Santa was some local guy that was hired to scare kids into behaving good (at least for a month or so after the holiday) and they were the ones who slipped him the 411 on our shenanigans. I think the Swiss take it even a step further, instead of being tapped with the bundle of twigs, Schmutzli threatens to stuff you into a sack and carry you off into the woods for a year.
Dear family and non-family friends, new and old, I wanted to wish you a very enjoyable holiday season, be good to each other, will you? Pray for snow, the only snow we have in New England at this time is on top of Mt Washington, but then again you can find it there in June, so really, it does not count.
I will be spending Christmas at my friend Stephanie's family in Norfolk, a 45 minute drive outside of Boston. Oscar will come along as well, and chirp a few tunes for the occasion. Merry, merry.
pet:)
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