Day 5: Shoppin' and Preppin'
It was completely dark outside when my watch went off at 7:30 am. Rain. Scheißwetter!

Before Marita went to work, she had breakfast with Peter and I. After morning rituals, Peter and I picked up Julia and Opa and went to Kaufland, a new supermarket in the area. Peter warned us that it would be busy and it was. Most supermarkets (and other stores!) would effectively be closed from noon on New Year's Eve until December 27. (The first and second days of Christmas, December 25 and 26 are national holidays.)

Along with buying the normal things to make egg nog, this year, I also got stuff to make potato skins for the second day of Christmas, which where will be spending at Oma's house.

The cute younger brother (i.e. D750i) took this pic:



I just pretended all prices (in Euro) were in USD. That made spending 75 Euro at the store a lot easier, although included in the price were not only the stuff for the potato skins, but also presents for Birgitt, Oma and Opa. Oh, and I got a 25 pack of Kummerling "bitter" shots. Hard to say whether the boyz back in Cincinnati will like the stuff. We'll see.

The rest of the day was spent unloading groceries, preparing for tomorrow, making sauces (on Peter's part) and wrapping presents (on my part.) We skipped lunch, but did have a nice tea, with Christmas Stollen at 3:00 pm.

RELAXING

Marita came home from work and last minute shopping at around 5:00 pm and made a special kind of sausage, along with fresh sauerkraut and potatoes from a mix. Deliciouso. These are probably my favorite kind of sausage (of the three we had had on the past three consecutive nights.)



We had initially planned to play Tripoley (the Christmas gift to the family) at Julia and Sören's house, but Peter, Marita and I were all a bit tired and we would be spending a lot of time with everyone over the next three days. We decided to stay in watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on ZDR.

I was tired and bid myself goodnight at around the middle of the film.

Sleep came swiftly and in my mind, I thought I would be able to sleep the entire night.

Then my new cell phone, which lay on the shelf beside me went off. Hmm. Unknown caller.

I picked it up and it was Marcin, from Kraków. He hadn't realized that I was already in Europe. We exchanged pleasantries and he agreed to buy two 35 zl tickets for Chase and I for New Year's at Klub 7. I'm looking forward to seeing him on the 30th.

I couldn't fall asleep...
- posted by Matt @ 4:14 AM