Christmas Extravaganza

I was quite curious in the days leading up to Christmas what our day would have in store for us. We didn't have much planned and it was going to be very different not having a Christmas tree or really any Christmas decorations up except for a teeny tiny advent calendar. The only thing on the agenda was going to a friends house for a special Christmas dinner. This is a couple who are good friends of the family we work for and we hit it off with them immediately upon meeting them. Markus works from home and makes his own schedule so he stops by the brewery quite frequently and we got to know him pretty well, and Stephanie, his wife is soft spoken but incredibly friendly. We were looking forward to getting to see them in their own element in their home and getting to know them a little better.
Christmas day proved to be pretty uneventful. Lots of TV watching, including some Christmas music videos and Sleepless in Seattle. Although it was no Christmas Story marathon, the down time was much appreciated. However, I did convince Brandon to go on a short hike with me in the afternoon.
So, we made it to Markus' house around 6, and joined the others who had been slaving away for hours to make an incredible feast. There were 5 couples joining in on the festivities. Markus and Stephanie, us, another couple we know from the brewery, and 2 we did not know. We got to explore their house a little bit and have a pre dinner drink and they even let us help out in the kitchen a little bit too. Around 8 we settled in around the table and started our meal with carrot ginger soup topped with a coconut shrimp skewer, then moved on to a bacon wrapped scallop with salad in citrus vinaigrette, avocado and mango. Both amazing dishes, these were my favorites of the meal. Then we moved on to the more heavy dishes, with the traditional German Christmas dinner nod to goose breast, blaukraut, and sauteed celery (which is celery root not celery stalks which are actually quite hard to come by here). Then roasted rabbit with fried polenta stars, which I got to cut out and were of course the best part :) At this point we took a bit of a longer break and started opening up some beer that Brandon had brewed along with some harder liquor to make the evening a bit more exciting. At this point Markus decided to add an extra course before dessert because his friend had brought some great cheese from Switzerland so we got to try three different white swiss cheeses. I must say though that to me they all tasted quite similar. Very strong aroma, good flavor, but not something I would want very often. So then we got dessert which was a Spanish creme with orange cream and pomegranate sauce and assorted tropical fruits. Perfect way to end the meal. Not too heavy. We ended up finishing eating around 12:30 or so. Markus was sloshed and I think they went on to party for a while but we decided to call it a night and headed back home.
So, the verdict for Christmas in Germany: very different but superb!