December in Wien

Punsch trinken mit mein Austrian Buddy!

The beginning of December brought the Christmas spirit front and center. The whole city was decked out in its finest decorations. Punsch stands and Christmas markets sprung up over night. The snow began to fall and didn't let up. It was perfect. I explored the Christmas markets and tried every kind of Punsch. Vienna with a blanket of snow is beautiful. I even went ice skating on an outdoor rink. Since the country is Catholic, advent calenders are everywhere throughout the city.

Things I have learned about Austrian Christmas. There is no Santa Claus. There is a Christkind (Christ child) who brings the children presents. Its a little child, still debated here whether a boy or a girl, who flies from house to house. Also, Christmas Eve is a much bigger deal than Christmas Day. Gifts are opened and the big family dinner occurs. Of course the night ends with the church service. There are also a lot of mini holidays before the 24th. One the 5th of December, children put out their shoes. Saint Nikolaus and his side kick, Krampus, come and visit the children. Krampus is a scary little man who comes from hell. He hits the bad children on the legs with a bundle of sticks. The really bad children are taken back to hell with him. The good children on the other hand get candy and presents in their shoes from Saint Nikolaus. Well, the Austrians really like this day. Many people dressed up as Krampus and jumped out at children on the street. I was laughing until someone jumped out at me and starting tapping me on the legs with sticks. I screamed so loud! Luckily I ran into Saint Nikolaus minutes later and he gave me chocolate.
 

Pretty Snow!

These past two weeks just flew by. I have been squeezing every last drop from Vienna. Classes wrapped up and then final exams came. I said goodbye to my children. They threw me a going away party. It was so cute. They all wrote me notes and hugged me goodbye. Before I knew it I was done. I completed my last college quarter. Weird. And scary. Many ups and downs this past week. Happy to be done and happy to see my family again. Happy to be going home and happy to have accomplished so much. At the same time I'm sad to be leaving. Sad to be saying goodbye to so many great friends. Sad to be ending a wonderful chapter of my life.
  
But I'm going to stick to the happy and the excited. Right now I'm on the train heading to western Austrian to meet my family. We are spending the holidays traveling through Austrian and Lower Germany. I'm so excited to see them and so them the country I have lived in for the past five months! This is not the end of the blog! Get excited to hear about the Wilson Family Shenanigans!


Schönbrunn at night



Me with Heilige Nickolaus



Thanksgiving Austrian Style

Wow time has flown by! I'm so sorry for not keeping this blog up to date. I just got so busy and time seemed to get away from me. But anyways, let's catch up on the past month. After getting home from my wonderful trip to Amsterdam and Paris, I started preparing for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday that most Austrians know absolutely nothing about. Well, my friend Hannah and I decided to educate them. We hosted a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving dinner for our Austrian friends.

We take our lists seriously

I am so proud of both of us. We chose the Saturday before Thanksgiving since many of us were traveling on the actual Thanksgiving weekend since our program gave us the long weekend off of class. So Hannah and I got together the week before our dinner to make lists. Lots and lots of lists! First we started by listing all the dishes we wanted to provide. We then listed the ingredients needed to make these dishes. Next came cooking times and pans. We were working with only one oven and a very limited pan supply. Austria does not do disposable pans so those were out of the question. We had to beg, borrow, and steal just to rummage up five. Then we listed our guests and sent out the invites. The next big step was tracking down all the ingredients. That was the biggest challenge of all.

Ta Da!  Pumpkin Pie!

First, the turkey. We invited 18 people to our dinner and so we wanted a fairly large turkey. Well, turkey is very difficult to find here. It is not a staple meat like it is back in America. And when we finally did track down a store that sold full turkeys, we realized we would need more than one. The largest turkey was more like an over sized chicken, about the size of a bowling ball. Normally two turkeys wouldn't be a problem, but with only one pan and one oven, we realized we would need to do some serious planning. The other ingredients were just as hard to find. No French fried onions or mushroom soup for the green bean casserole. Solution: I made my own mushroom soup and onions beforehand. No pumpkin for the pie. Solution: I bought a full pumpkin, steamed it for an hour, scooped out the cooked pumpkin, and then mashed it to make pumpkin pie...in a rectangle dish since pie tins are nonexistent here. No Graham crackers for pie crust. Solution: Hannah used shortbread cookies. No acorn squash or yams. Solution: Hannah substituted sweet potatoes and suße squash (still not sure what kind it was). The hardest thing to track down was actually pecans for the pecan pie. They're considered a specialty nut here and can only be bought at one store we found out. So, with our makeshift ingredients and lists, Hannah and I set to work.

Nominee for Best Supporting Role

Dinner was being served around five on Saturday. Hannah and I tried to prepare as many dishes as we could the day before so we only had the turkeys the day of. Friday was spent cooking something and then transferring it to another dish since there were limited oven safe pans. We baked two cheese cakes, a rectangular pumpkin pie, a rectangular pecan pie, a sweet potato squash dish, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes. And of course no Thanksgiving dinner prep is complete without the consumption of Glühwein during the process. Elizabeth doesn't really like Thanksgiving dinner and therefore has no experience cooking it. So she contributed by washing dishes, cleaning the apartment, and taking out the trash. Hannah and I never could have pulled it off without her supporting role.

Early morning prep

Saturday morning we got up early to prep and cook the turkeys. With a strict basting schedule in place, we finished up the other little things like the gravy, rolls, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. In the end it was a huge success. Our Austrian friends loved it and had a wonderful time. Before we ate we shared what we were thankful for. All the food tasted Delicious. We even included Thanksgiving entertainment by reenacting the first Thanksgiving. Elizabeth narrated, Hannah played the role of pilgrim and I took the role Indian. Instead of ending with the dinner though, the narrator decided to continue a few more years and the show ended with the pilgrims giving the Indians smallpox which killed them off. I had a wonderful death scene. Afterward, all I could think was 'we pulled it off'.

Half of the Party! The boys were late of course

The following week our program hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for us on Thanksgiving Day. It was fun to be with everyone. I also taught my children about Thanksgiving. I told them the story of the first Thanksgiving and explained why we have this holiday. I taught then the traditional foods and I even baked them pecan tarts. I ended the lesson with having them make a hand turkey. They were thrilled and they all wanted to show me their turkeys. It was so cute how excited they got.

Overall, spending Thanksgiving in Austria has made me appreciate my friends and family back home so much more. I never realized all the work that goes into preparing a full dinner. In the past I have be strictly a helper and not a planner. I appreciate this holiday that brings together friends and family.