Weekend Recap

Over the weekend, Blythe and I hung out with our friends for a German evening. We watched a German kids' movie, Hilfe!, and had some traditional food for dinner. We would totally recommend watching the movie! It was adorable, although there was a surprising amount of cussing. And you don't even need to know German to watch it! It's got subtitles! 

I, Charlotte, also got to practice fishtail braids over the weekend! I love how they look but my hair isn't long enough to practice on myself. My friend's hair is really long though, and so perfect for practicing! Isn't her hair gorgeous?  Fishtail braids are my favorite summer hairstyle, so I'm glad to finally be getting better at it! Hopefully you'll see them on the blog again soon!

-Charlotte 

Eierbaum

As I showed you guys in my post about my Easter weekend, I made an Eierbaum! That's not the official term for it, but in German you can sometimes make up words for things, so that's what I call it. I also can't remember the official term, but that's another story. Literally, it means "egg tree," which basically describes it perfectly! This is a traditional German Easter decoration, and here is my tutorial explaining how to make one!

First you want to poke two little holes in the raw eggs, one in the top and one in the bottom. We used a meat thermometer thing, as you can see above. Then blow out eggs. To do this easily, make sure one hole is smaller than the other. 

Once the eggs have been blown out, wash the egg shells with soapy water and then rinse. 

Then use water colors to paint the egg shells. 

Break a match into pieces and use the piece without the red thing for the tree. Tie a piece of white thread around the piece of wood. Then put it in the small hole at the top of the egg. If things turned out right, the thread tied to the match can be used to hang the eggs on the tree. 

This is what my final product looked like! It's a bit different than what a traditional egg tree is supposed to look like. In Germany, the temperature is quite different than it is where I live, so the branches wouldn't have any leaves on them. I prefer the look of the Eierbaum without leaves, but I just did what I could! 

This is one of my favorite German traditions, and I love the whimsical touch it adds to my kitchen! I hope this tutorial was easy to follow, but just let me know if you have any questions!

-Charlotte 

I Know What Day It Is...

"Good. You've finally learned your days of the week."

-Harry Potter

To get the image source, click on it. 

Sorry I just had to throw in that Harry Potter reference, even though it has basically no connection at all to this post (if you were wondering this quote is from a conversation between Dudley and Harry in the second book. And don't hold me to this as a direct quote.). Anyway, the title does. I know what day it is today! It's December 6! Which really only pertains to any of our (if we have them) German readers. 

Other countries probably celebrate something similar to this holiday, but I'm not sure when those dates are or how similar they are at all.  But, let's stick with what I do know: today is St. Nikolaus Tag (St. Nickolaus Day)! Though traditions vary from Northern Germany to Southern Germany, the main idea is the same. On December 5, German children shine and clean their shoes and put them outside the door or window. Which one it is is pretty much dictated by the weather. I mean, if it were snowing, you might want to move your nice and squeaky clean shoes to the window. Then, that night, St. Nikolaus comes around and puts presents in the shoes, but only if you're good. If you're bad, his helper (I forgot his name) brings coal and twigs.

When I was growing up, we would always celebrate this holiday, but with the shoes inside. Sometimes, when I was really young, my parents would put little trails of candy from the window like the bag of presents had broken. It was all tons of fun, and while we don't do that anymore, I still celebrate St. Nikolaus Tag!

I hope you all had a great holiday as well!

-Charlotte