Hello world,
Today is the big day. Today is Christmas over here in germany and I’ve the feeling that most Germans are freaking out and I don’t know why. As my mentor didn’t told me anything about Christmas, I didn’t know what to expect.
In the morning I thought it would be a quite routined day, as my mentor got up, showered and started to learn for university (again). I think it was for ‘English Linguistics and Language’ or stuff like that. I’m not really sure about it and to be honest: I don’t really care at the moment. I started to feel bored and wondered why Christmas is so special.
It all changed in the afternoon. My mentor and her family are used to be Catholic and so we went to church (a Catholic one in Ratingen) in the afternoon. But it was only 4.15 pm as we were there and the Mass was not to be beginning before 5 pm. So I really wondered why we were so early around until we went into the church. I never saw so many people at one place. It was hard to find a seat but we were so lucky, we got one of the last one in the first row. My mentor gave her bag to her mother and we went to the nativity set, where I took some pictures. Afterwards we went back to my mentors seat and after a while the mass started. It was amazing and now I know why Christmas is celebrated. Actually I really liked the end of the mass, as everybody sung ‘Holdy night’ and the lights were turned off. After the mass I got the opportunity to sit on the altar as my mentors granfather worked for that church ages ago.
After the mass we wished everybody we saw a merry christmas and we went to my mentors grandfather and grandmother. There I saw that they decorated the living room a little bit. Not that much as they are too old to do so (it’s their opinion). But I really had to taked pictures in the decoration and I really loved it. Afterwards we had a typical German Christmas dinner: potato salad and sausages (and lots of cucumbers). It was so yummy as her granny made the potato salad. Then the family cleaned the dishes. As it was done, they turned off the light and all we had was candle light. They began to sing a christmas song. Something like ‘Ihr Kinderlein kommet.’ In the meantime there were a couple of presents on the table and I didn’t knew for whom they would be. But my mentor told me immediately that there are some for each of the member of the family. It would be a tradition, so we sat on the seats (everybody has his/her own, special seat every year). They started to unwrapped the presents, talked and laughed. I really liked the atmosphere 
Not too late we went to my hosts mother and siblings. Here we wanted to celebrate Christmas as well. But this time it was different. We got there and my mentor and her siblings had to go into the roome of her sister. Even the cat ahd to go there too. Here we all had a talk and played some cards. It was fun. Then her mother cam and said, that we are allowed to go into the living room. There laid another presents and I knew now why. So again, everybody went to his / her seat and unwrapped all the presents. As my mentor got some ‘Sex-on-the-beach’ cocktail mix, they all had some of it. Not that much, as they didn’t wanted to be drunk. Again we all had a great talk and laughed a lot. Even here we were allowed to play in the decoration. It was different to the first one as it was a winterland here. I loved it and now I can’t wait to see the real snow and playing in it.
Even if it looked like a common, boring day at the beginning, it was busy but fun in the end. My highlight was as everybody started to sing ‘Holy Night’ in the church.
That’s it for today and thank you for reading,
Marawarpina
