Gwen Wren's First Weihnachten (Christmas)

Gwendolyn's first Christmas was a cozy, quiet affair. We had planned to go on a trip to the Austrian alps and/or northern Italy, and the exotic location would serve as our Christmas gift to ourselves, our Christmas decoration, and our holiday entertainment--all in one. But Rachel had to be around to finish up some experimental work with the bats, and we were still getting settled in to our new apartment, so our plans kept getting pushed back. When Christmas Day rolled around, we didn't have a tree, or decorations of any kind, or any real plans. We decided to just have a nice day, open our few presents, go on a walk. Not so very different from other days. But there were a few unexpected delights.

Pulling on ribbon was one.

Chewing on ribbon was another.

Dissolving wrapping paper in the mouth was a third. (We had to put down the camera at this point to intervene.)

In early afternoon (already dark in Germany), we drove to the nearby monastery at Andechs. I must admit, we were looking for a meal--we hadn't managed to restock our fridge before all the stores closed for the holidays, and the monastery has a great biergarten which we thought, just maybe, would be open. The biergarten turned out to be closed, but we found sustenance nonetheless. As we approached the monestary there were carolers holding fire-lit torches. We noticed families walking together up the hill toward the church. We followed the people around the church and into a side door.

Here is a picture of the church that we took on a previous visit. We walked through the church nave, which looked much the same as in this picture except lit with candles. But this was not where people were headed. Across the church, in a small side room, was a humble nativity scene, pungent with hay, where people of all creeds and ages came to pay homage to the Christ child. We had inadvertently found the heart of Christmas in Bavaria! Suddenly, the fact that we had no Christmas tree or roasted ham or eggnog didn't matter so much.

Frohe Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr, everybody!

David & Rachel