Travelog for: Nicki Bear

I'm so happy, that Petra decided to go to the Christmas market of Trier with her family. Short before dinner she found me in a shop on the Christmas market and she couldn't resist to buy me.

May I introduce myself??? I'm Nicki, the Christmas bear girl. And I'm so curious to see, what will happen now.


At first it seems, that everyone is hungry and so we go to an old cellar. I thought, that nobody wants to eat in a cellar, but this one is really nice.

After another walk over the Christmas market, we went home again. I'm so happy, that Petra took some more photos with me too. I saw, that I'm not the only bear in her family, because there are three beary guests at her home: Little Teddy from the Netherlands, Snowy from the USA and Tenderheart Bear from Australia. I'm sure we will have a lot of fun.

Back at the youth hostel we jumped in our bed at first and had a little rest. Another bear and a bunny joined us

After a while we got up again for a little play on the piano


Nicki Bear's travel plan:

Michele_one_L Thanks for being such a great host

USA Trail with BunTraveler (February/March), 3tmom, wourpet, carlissa, tarepanda (not the order of traveling) Thank you everyone for taking care of Nicki Bear

BlackCat (Germany)
JaymeC (Okinawa, Japan)

Australian Trail in January 2009

1. The Porta Nigra is Unesco World Heritage
2. This morning we walked to the Christmas market again.
3. Another photo of the Christmas market
4. Also the cathedral and the other church next to the cathedral are Unesco World Heritage
5. I wanted to see the Kaiserthermen, the ancient bath of the Romans in Trier, also Unesco World Heritage.
6. I love the view from the Petrisberg down on Trier. The round that you see behind me, is the Amphitheater of the Romans.
7. Far away on the left side you see the Moselle
8. Another view over Trier
9. Here you see the synagoge of Trier

We thought it was really funny, when my family told us, that they wanted to drive to Luxemburg to fill up the tank of the car, but when we saw the prices there, we really understood.
It is funny, that this town is called Wasserbillig, Water cheap. It's not the water, that they want to buy here, but the petrol, which is about 30 cents cheaper than in Germany. Because the petrol is so much cheaper, there is one street with many many petrol stations.

We also were in a shop to buy some chocolate and other things that are cheaper there than in Germany.

The two last photos show Wasserbillig and the 'border' to Germany.

Back in Trier we saw this nice church from the far. It is called St. Matthias and there is the grave of the apostel Matthias.

Another place of Unesco World Heritage is the column in Igel. It's a funny name of that town, which means hedgehog.

You see the vine yards and the Moselle. Moselle vine is very famous.

Finally Petra found some time to bake Christmas cookies and we were allowed to help her.
If you want to exchange recipes with me and her, I will be very happy.

Vanille-Kipferl and Honigherzen (gingerbread)

It's really cold here since a while, but today morning it was a big surprise when we looked outsite. All the trees were covered with hoarfrost and everything looked to beautiful. We were happy, that it was Petra's school free day so we decided to walk in the palace park and take some photos there.

At home again it was time for baking some more cookies. So just take a look at some of them.

Today we baked some Buttergebäck --- butter cookies. They are really nice for children.

Then we sat on our nice place in the kitchen to watch Petra baking some other cookies.

Here is the nice window decoration in the kitchen. Petra made some more parts of it in the afternoon. I'm sure she will take another photo with me so you will see it too.

It's the fourth of Advent today and so all four candles of the advent wreath are lit.
I wanted to sit in the middle of the wreath and so Petra helped me a bit to go there.
Then I helped to bake some cookies or better Petra helped me to do it.

I made the dough for a biscuit cake. Then I had to control, whether the dough is in the corners of the star


Petra and I prepared some dough for Spritzgebäck, but then Petra remembered, that she threw the mincer away last year. So we thought and thought and suddenly we - was it me or her? - had the idea to make pretzel cookies out of that dough. Don't they look nice?

Today is Holy Eve and everyone is very very excited. There are so many things to be prepared for the evening. The house smells like Christmas and you hear Christmas songs in the radio and from cd.
My friends are sitting at our place at the window and watch Petra and me doing our work. I asked them to not look at us, because I don't want them to know, what we are doing, so they played a game and talked and listened to the music.

Petra prepared a dough and baked 'Stänglein'. After they cooled down, I spread one with nougat and lied the second on it.

Then I melted the chocolate to dip the Nugatkipferl in it.

After that I had to make the dough for the white bread. It is a recipe of my mum's granddad and the whole family just loves that bread.

Petra promissed to take some more photos with me and her window decoration and here it is. She cut out the new donkey and the Bethlehem star

After the nougat between the two 'Stänglein' was firm, it was time for me to do the icing

After the sugar-citron icing was dry, I started to paint ornaments with chocolate on it. It is rather difficult to do this. Here you see me writing Snowy's name.

I had to paint all these cookies and you can believe I have been really tired after that.

But of course there was no time to relax, because I had to prepare dinner with my assistent Petra.

First we had to blanch the chicken breasts.
Then we had to prepare the white sauce. Petra told me, that she would make a 'Mehlschwitze' (roux) now, it's a funny word. We did some asparagus, peas and mushrooms to the chicken in the sauce
At next we prepared the 'Kinderpunsch' (children punch).

Of course we had to wash the salad and prepare the dressing too. I asked Petra to cut the onions, because I just started to cry, when I saw it.

At last I prepared the table for dinner. Do you like it?

And then I looked, whether everything is ok at the crib, so I could fetch my friends to bring them to that place in our dining room

And then it was here, the most silent night of the year


Holy Night


In Germany families celebrate the Holy Night, mostly only parents and children together, maybe grandparents, if they want to be part of it.
The celebration starts with going to the service in the afternoon, if you have little children - or those, who play a role in the Christmas play - just like Sabrina had to do. Older people go to church at 5pm, 10pm or at midnight.
After church my family normally went to the graves on the graveyard, which is near to our house, next to the baroque church St.Peter. This year however they didn't find the time for it.
After church we prepared dinner, you know it, when you read the last post.
Oh yes, in the morning they brought the tree in the livingroom and decorated it, but only the boys were allowed to go into the livingroom and so there is no photo of us.
After dinner a bell called everyone to go into the livingroom. There were only the lights of candles on the tree and table. Under the tree were many presents and a nice railroad.
We sat down on the table, because Petra told us, that we would see everything much better, when we would sit there.

So Sabrina started to read a story about the song SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT and all others of the family read another part of that story. It was really interesting to hear about the history of that song.

Then we played and sang the Christmas carols together.

After about nearly one hour of reading and singing we opened the presents. Only the children were allowed to go to the tree and fetch one present, read the name on it and give it to the new owner, so it took a while until we received our present.

You see me here with my friends and their present cookie. It tasted very well, that's what they told me.

Yesterday we celebrated with my grandparents and my mum's sister's family at her parents home. Unhappily the photos didn't come out well, so no updates about this.

In the morning I had a ride on the train and I visited the family members of the crib, that is in the livingroom.

I looked out of the window and saw some snow, but too less to play in it.

Petra has some nice window pictures in the livingroom too.

I was happy to sit next to the oven in the livingroom, because it was rather cold outside.

Petra got a nice calendar with Australian photos and so it was time for Tenderheart Bear to show us some parts of his country.

Today we went to Ralf's family, this time celebrating at his sister Rena's home.

Today is Sabrina's birthday and we all helped to prepare the cakes and lasagne. We had a lot of fun.

You see Zebrakuchen, Lasagne, Apfelkuchen (apple cake), Adventskuchen

recipe Zebrakuchen:
6 eggs
375g sugar
1 P. vanilla-sugar
375g flour
1 P. baking-powder
1/8 l oil
1/8 l water
Etwa 2 EL cacao

Beat the egg-white with half of sugar until stiff. Stir yolk with the other half of sugar creamy. Carefully add oil and water, while you still stir the dough.  Fold in baking-powder and flour and then the egg-white.
Add in half of the dough cacao, so you have a dark and white dough.

Butter the baking-tin and give one spoon white dough in the middle of the tin. In the middle of this white dough give one spoon dark dough and so on until all dough is in the baking-tin.

Bake in the preheated oven  (180°C) 40 to 50 minutes

If you want, make a chocolate icing on the cake.