I guess it was bound to happen, what with marriages, nieces
and nephews and an ever-growing family that now spans two continents…after
thirty two years of spending Christmas Eve at home with the family, enjoying
cracked crab and home-made raviolis, Martin and I started our own new Christmas
traditions this year.
The day started as most do, with a nice big European style
breakfast, and lunch was skipped in favor of coffee and cake. Although on this special day, we enjoyed the
Breuer Family Christmas Eve Frankfurter cake, which was traditionally made by his
grandmother and now his mom, and always eaten on Christmas Eve. The cake was a decadent, three layer piece of
art work that took two days to make, made a complete mess of the kitchen,
included butter-cream frosting, marmalade filing and caramelized nuts and
resulted in Martin exclaiming “being a German haus-frau is hard work”
After coffee and cake, the unthinkable happened…Martin had
previously convinced me to attend Christmas Eve service and, for the first time
in 10 years, I went to church. After
researching our options, we settled on the Norwegian Seaman’s Chapel in Russian
Hill. Martin goes fishing in Norway
every year, so it seemed perfect. Situated
on the cusp of Russian Hill and Fisherman’s Wharf, the old mansion provided
beautiful sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the Bay
Bridge. Arriving early, we were able to enjoy the views and spend time with
both the pastor and organist, both tall stoutly blondes with hospitable smiles
and general good cheer. And after
answering the obvious question (why two non-Norwegian speakers chose to attend
a Norwegian service) we were immediately welcomed into the fold (complete with
coffee and waffles).
 |
| Enjoying the views from the balcony |
The service was beautiful (both in the native language and
those parts translated into English) and I was able to practice my Norwegian
under the cover of singing…below is one of the Pslams we sang!
We ended the night in my favor, with a yummy meal, a bottle
of Dom Perignon and a night cap. And in
accordance with Martin’s traditions, we opened up our presents that night,
under our decked out Christmas tree.
While it was something new, I loved every moment of the day and our new
traditions.
Oh, and that crab dinner we missed…We ended up having it on
Christmas Day with the family…and again on that following Thursday.
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