Stollen Sunday

[Kittykatt]

Triple Dog Dare!

Pick 3 things
Do them
Post your TaDas!

»»—-Cheers! WTG! Ygg!—-««

Don't think about it. Just do it!
~~ I Triple Dog Dare ya! ~~
Good Morning!
»»————　✼　————««

[Kittykatt]

Stollen is a traditional German Christmas fruit bread of nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit, coated with powdered sugar or icing sugar and often containing marzipan. During the Christmas season the cake-like loaves are called Weihnachtsstollen (after "Weihnachten", the German word for Christmas) or Christstollen (after Christ). A ring-shaped Stollen made in a Bundt cake or Gugelhupf pan is called a Stollenkranz (stollen wreath).

Early stollen was different from the modern version, with the ingredients being flour, oats and water. As a Christmas bread, stollen was baked for the first time at the Saxon Royal Court in 1427, and was made with flour, yeast, oil and water.

The Advent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and hard.

Over the centuries, the bread changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless "bread" to a sweeter bread with richer ingredients, such as marzipan, although traditional stollen is not as sweet, light, and airy as the copies made around the world.

In the GDR, Dresden stollen were sent to West Germany as a way of thanking the citizens of West Germany for sending care packets (Westpaket), as they were both available to the GDR citizens and of a high enough standard to be appreciated as gifts.

Commercially made stollen has become a popular Christmas food in Britain in recent decades, complementing traditional dishes such as mince pies and Christmas pudding. All the major supermarkets sell their own versions, many made in Germany, and it is often baked by home bakers.

[Kittykatt]

Happy Sunday, everyone!

[Kittykatt]

To do:
Cuddles and snack for Matilda, Jude and Freddie
Bible reading and meditation
Update latest Waitrose order
Cup of tea
Get up!
Scrub out litter trays (DH)
Change sheets on bed
Shower/wash hair/moisturiser and sunblock/ clean and floss teeth
S/S bathroom
Physio exercises
Get dressed in casual clothes
Give everyone fresh water
Cat breakfast and meds /supplements
Breakfast and meds /vitamins for me
Quick kitchen clean up
Hang up towels that washed overnight
Load DW
Quick PUPA downstairs
Quick dust and Hoover downstairs
Change into smarter outfit
Hang up sheets to dry
OTD to church
Lunch out with DH and some of his friends
Put up my vitamins and supplements for the week
Weigh out Jude's and Matilda's dry food for the week
Quick PUPA upstairs
15 minutes in tiny front garden
15 minutes in back garden
Walk Freddie
Lap time with Freddie
Lap time with Jude
Cuddles with Matilda
Head rubs with Freddie, Jude and Matilda
Play with Freddie, Jude, Matilda
Fold laundry and PA
Run DW when full
Unload DW
Post list with my plans for the week
Clothes laid out for tomorrow

Extras:

[FrenchFlybebe]

◕‿◕ * * * Good Morning! * * * ◕‿◕

kittykatt, thanks for the start. Stollen has been available in France around Christmas since I was a teen, maybe earlier. I remember my Grandmother (my mom's mom) would serve us some, with tea, when visiting around Christmas. Love the marzipan and dried fruits. I hope you have a good time at church and a good time eating out (with DBIL?) today.

Interesting talks about trip visas (not planning a trip to the US any time soon, fortunately), and about museums and visits.
I need to travel, we enjoyed our family trip to Belgium / NL/ Luxemburg this summer, although not enough time for museums and arts when traveling with kids...

DS10 is enjoying having is friend over. There wasn't any party for his birthday as DS10 has had some strong disagreement with his best schoolfriend and only had two school friends left to invite (not super friends, just nice). So he preferred to organize a sleepover with A-- who isn't at his school, he was last year but is now at collège in another town, and who is a great friend with him.
DS7 is having some quiet time, he needs rest and slower days after many weeks of morning rushes and hurried evenings, and full days of school and after school daycare. Yesterday afternoon mrNG and I managed to do some much-needed cleaning. We had family movie night with friend A--. A-- will be leaving in the evening. It's rainy. Not sure what the plans are. I intend to read for fun, do house tasks... maybe wrap a few presents.
Still one present to buy for MrNG and it appears DS7 doesn't have as many presents as DS10 for Christmas, so we need to shop for another one. The shops will be crowded and so are our plannings, but it is doable.

TADAs
fed three boys
some time drawing with DS7
quick cuop

TODOs
read or sew or stitch ? (me time)
morning self-care, get dressed, get boys to brush teeth and get dressed
some lunch prep (homemade fries by MrNG, kebab, and probably some veggies to prep)

later
baking with DS7?
see how much homework the kids have during the school break
brainstorming for remaining Christmas presents

[trissie]

Frenchie, oh the art of counting presents so that every kid gets (roughly) the same amount! What movie did you see last night? I upset the girls by requesting them to move back the furniture in their room (the way they arranged it, you couldn't open some drawers and air flow would be cut off in a spot that's prone to molding, so NO WAY! and also in the past I specifically forbade them from moving their beds and big pieces of furniture exactly for this reason as it's happened before) so they refused to participate in family movie night and since DBD is likely to fall asleep midway, we put on Die Hard which DS wanted
kittykatt, now I crave a stollen! I think I have a no-mellow recipe somewhere (with the addition of curd cheese), so I may make one. But I am kinda dead set on making Christmas braided bread today (not the "proper version", i.e. really braiding it from 9 strands, but I have a mold which will make it look braided), so we shall see!
helia, if you know an immigration lawyer with whom you can consult, that's great - it's always good to have a wide social network of professionals who can provide advice! Social capital, as they call it, makes such a difference. I am an advising member of community non-profit legal and finacial advisory forum, so I know how a lot of things which are really simple for me (i.e., I either know or know who to ask or how to find out) can be a major hassle to people who just don't know any lawyers, doctors, tax accountant etc.

The tree is up, the house is tidier, but could definitely use more. I hope to knock off one area of my Christmas cleaning list today (likely pantry, as that is down to a single task - the storage shelf for drinks and jams/canned fruit in the garage) and also get the downstairs storage in shape as it's been a victim of stuff being just shoved in there. So happy that there will not be any "what's your homework?" tonight, thought I know that DBD has some work sheets and DS has a book report due the first week of school.

TaDas
- slow morning
- dressed to shoes
- breakfast and coffee
- morning routine
- master bed stripped
- load of linens running

ToDos
- 15 on laundry
- 30 in downstairs storage
- start lunch

Braindump
routines
- midday routine
- afternoon routine
- evening routine
food
- lunch
- dinner
- bake something sweet
- freezer cooking
organization
- update land contract
- rework contract with DS14's therapist
- have kids check and empty backpacks (no forgotten food found on Jan 4)
- DBD's speech therapy
- 15 on filing
cleaning
- remake master bed
- spiff up twins' room
- spiff up DBD's room
- spiff up DS13's room
- spiff up master bedroom
- spiff up master bathroom
- spiff up kitchen
- spiff up living room
- spiff up office
- spiff up downstairs bathroom and hallways
- spiff up front porch
laundry
- load of cleaning rags
- ironing
- folding
- mending
- laundry put away
me time
- 15 of exercise
- Bible study
- reading
Christmas preps
- decorate gingerbread cookies
- assemble gingerbread nativity
- go over box of decorations - anything else we want up? if not, put it in attic
- more Christmas baking if anything seems interesting? all family favourites are done
House&Holidays - I kinda really should do something about it
- week 3 deep cleaning - DBD's room
- week 6 deep cleaning - twins' room
- week 9 deep cleaning - living room
- week 10 deep cleaning - kitchen
- week 11 deep cleaning - pantry
- week 13 deep cleaning - storage spaces
- week 14 deep cleaning - public spaces
- week 4 Christmas tasks
- week 5 Christmas tasks
- week 6 Christmas tasks
- week 7 Christmas tasks
- week 8 Christmas tasks
- week 9 Christmas tasks
- week 10 Christmas tasks
- week 11 Christmas tasks
- week 12 Christmas tasks
- week 13 Christmas tasks
- week 14 Christmas tasks
- week 15 Christmas tasks
- week 16 Christmas tasks
- week 17 Christmas tasks

[helia]

trissie, yes, so true. Good for you for being on the advisory forum. Yes, we have a few IRL lawyer friends, including LA and 2 in our Community Group 1. And we have several medical doctor friends (6 off the top of my head in our CGs + R) because this town is crawling with medical people with the large med school. WTG getting the tree up!
Glad DS10 had a nice time with his friend, FFB. Good luck finishing the shopping! Sounds like you're really close to done.
I don't know if I've had stollen bread before or not, Kitty. I think I have. I hope you had a wonderful morning at church and enjoyed your Sunday lunch. Bil is with you now, right? Did he go to church with you and dh?

We are still blatantly tree-less and Christmas decoration-less. The girls feel very ambivalent about our traditional family outing to get a tree; there isn't much energy to get one. I still think it would be nice. Maybe dh and I will get one today? We usually do it after dinner (I don't know why. . . ), but this evening is out as we're hosting Sunday dinner and then we have a family zoom call.

I chose not to join dh on his long run this morning. I have been going and walking while he runs, but RH is joining this time, and he won't run the whole time, so I'd probably be sitting in the car with him for some of the time, which is OK, but I'd rather have time at home alone. He's actually an easy houseguest, but he's quite present and is probably overall an emotional energy zero to negative for me. That doesn't mean he's difficult, just that he's a young man - still a grad student - and doesn't help a lot or show a lot of personal interest in me. As our houseguest, I try to reach out to him and make sure he's taken care of, which over time takes emotional energy. Dh says I'm more sensitive than most to all this. Maybe. I wish I weren't. I feel like I "need" some time alone in my own space, though I also know that is a privileged "need".

Yesterday, I ordered dh's gift, so I think I'm done shopping. I will probably get another small shoe gift for J12yo though. Now, I need to start wrapping.

On to today: Church this morning and then hosting dinner for 7? this evening and then our family zoom at 8:15. This afternoon, I'd like to be active - maybe a walk. I need to do more laundry and set up some things in my GC for my class to help them prep for the exam tomorrow. Memorial thank yous are still unfinished.

Next:
- back exercises
- s2s and self care
- laundry: tumble press and then fold/ hang shirts and pants

Later:
- reclaim kitchen
- make the bed
- 9:45 - 12-ish out to church
- lunch
- payroll: post audio + scripts, vocab list, midterm exam - to redo for practice
- lights: w d f pa
- walk
- WF run?
- 6 host Sunday dinner for 7 people
- after dinner clean up
- duolingo
- update health apps
- 8:15 - 9:30 family zoom call
- maybe start wrapping?
- put away puzzle?
- other things?

TaDas!
- up; weighed self
- coffee
- email deletions + weather website - sunny but cold, high of 29F (around -1.67 C); currently 18F

WEEKLY ACTIVITIES
Sun 9 - Cmas drama at church?/10 - 11:30ish church service/ 6 - ? host Sunday dinner for 8? / 8:15 - 9:30 family zoom call

Mon 8-11 window - chimney sweep and pest control here/ 1-1:40 instructor mtg./ 1:40 - 3:30 payroll: teach AAS D13 FINAL EXAM
Tue 10 - 11 haircut/ KS2J get together?/ host dinner for dd30's friend L + family/ shoes - night 1
Wed Cmas Eve service? / shoes night 2
Thu Cmas dinner for 8?/ light the candles and read stories/ shoes night 3
Fri date with dh?/ shoes night 4
Sat SINTER KLAAS - breakfast and planning session/ write poems all day/ evening - celebrate SK!

December Brain Dumps
This Week - House
- towel laundry
- can I scrub the tile in our shower?

This Week - Deskwork
- make appointment with optometrist
- Memorial thank yous
- reach out to JK?

This Week - Christmas prep
- wrap other gifts
- order seafood for the paella

This Week - Errands
- get Mom's bags of stuff to the charity
- buy more wrapping paper and labels
- buy more yarn

General Brain Dump
- progress decluttering clothes - wip
- new phone eventually

Mom
- go through bag of Mom's knick knacks

[trissie]

helia, I think it's wise for you to recharge in solitude! You ain't gonna get much of that in the coming days!

TaDas
- 15 on laundry
- 30 in downstairs storage
- start lunch
- midday routine
- dough for braided bread proofing

ToDos
- 15 on laundry
- 3x10 room rescue - living room, kitchen, communal areas
- go over box of decorations - anything else we want up? if not, put it in attic

Braindump
routines
- afternoon routine
- evening routine
food
- dinner
- bake something sweet
- freezer cooking
organization
- update land contract
- rework contract with DS14's therapist
- have kids check and empty backpacks (no forgotten food found on Jan 4)
- DBD's speech therapy
- 15 on filing
cleaning
- remake master bed
- spiff up twins' room
- spiff up DBD's room
- spiff up DS13's room
- spiff up master bedroom
- spiff up master bathroom
- spiff up kitchen
- spiff up living room
- spiff up office
- spiff up downstairs bathroom and hallways
- spiff up front porch
laundry
- load of cleaning rags
- ironing
- folding
- mending
- laundry put away
me time
- 15 of exercise
- Bible study
- reading
Christmas preps
- decorate gingerbread cookies
- assemble gingerbread nativity
- more Christmas baking if anything seems interesting? all family favourites are done
House&Holidays - I kinda really should do something about it
- week 3 deep cleaning - DBD's room
- week 6 deep cleaning - twins' room
- week 9 deep cleaning - living room
- week 10 deep cleaning - kitchen
- week 11 deep cleaning - pantry
- week 13 deep cleaning - storage spaces
- week 14 deep cleaning - public spaces
- week 4 Christmas tasks
- week 5 Christmas tasks
- week 6 Christmas tasks
- week 7 Christmas tasks
- week 8 Christmas tasks
- week 9 Christmas tasks
- week 10 Christmas tasks
- week 11 Christmas tasks
- week 12 Christmas tasks
- week 13 Christmas tasks
- week 14 Christmas tasks
- week 15 Christmas tasks
- week 16 Christmas tasks
- week 17 Christmas tasks
[/quote]

[FrenchFlybebe]

trissie, we watched Arthur Christmas. We had seen it last year around Christmas, so we have sufficiently forgotten about it to enjoy re-watching it. Next Christmas movie will be Santa & Cie which is a French movie, but it's been adapted to English (Christmas & Co), trailer video here. I hope you can get the pantry done.

helia, interesting how you describe your interactions with your young houseguest. I hope you can have some un-exhausting time today.

In some countries the tree is put up only just before Christmas. In Germany it is put up and decorated on Christmas Eve only, if I remember well.
Three boys are currently quietly drawing and discussing in the LR. Which is why I am posting. I spent a good part of the morning settling disagreements between DS7 and the older two.
Not sure what I can get done, probably don't want to do much. Some wrapping, I hope.

TADAs
read stories to DS7
a few hurried things here and there
helped MrNG prep lunch, serve lunch, clean-up lunch
managed to keep three boys alive

TODOs
some quiet time
baking with DS7?
see how much homework the kids have during the school break
weekly list ?
DS10's DF A-- goes back home around 6pm
kids to shower, set clothes for tomorrow
easy dinner, bedtime
brainstorming for remaining Christmas presents

[Bama]

Good morning! Happy Sunday!
I hope to resume normal procedures tomorrow. For now, the party prep must go on.

Sunday
Ham in oven by 9
Shower
Dailies, mop if time
Light candles in bathroom and living room
Take Shea eggs, pu casseroles and pies and bake
Put cranberry sauce in bowl
Make lettuce and sour cream
Heat rolls in oven, butter
Lay out charcuterie, snacks, desserts
Put napkins in guest bathroom
Make Saran ball
Set out folding chair, extra yard chairs?