Schmuck

Schmuck. Schmook. Jewelery, decorations.  Another one of those German words that makes me laugh (German friends, I promise I will feature my favorite, lovely German words one of these days). It is a pretty unattractive word to describe what is generally beautiful or pleasant to look at (I realize that there are many, many exceptions to this statement).  Even better is the verb schmücken (to decorate), or the participle, geschmückt.
Anyway, our current nomadic existence doesn't leave us with a lot of wiggle room for holiday schmuck, so we are making due with a few essentials, and becoming good at disposable decorations.




Real mistletoe from the market

Lights . . . essential to get through the nearly 17 hours of darkness.

Look what was in our closet!

I wish I could say that these were handmade by me to be cherished family heirlooms. They are not.  I bought them at Target last year for $1 and put our names on them yesterday.  I got a little bit emotional when packing up Elsa's real stocking for storage (bear in mind that I was just a wee bit hormonal during this packing process) and couldn't stand the thought of not having stockings in Germany.

Do you remember Nick from "Family Ties"- Mallory's boyfriend who made art out of trash? He was a genious, and so are the people who came up with the wine cork-tissue box nativity scene idea. It has me thinking about creating an entire wine cork family, which is a win-win (wine-wine?) situation for all: toys for Elsa, and an excuse to drink wine for mom and dad.  This might need to be a large family. 

Anyway, this fit my disposable, d-i-y decoration plan perfectly, and entertained Elsa for about 3 minutes at a time on a few rainy afternoons.  My plan for the pig-looking sheep made out of modeling clay was foiled by this opinionated two year old who won't let me cover it with cotton, so now it looks like a noseless newborn mouse.  Also, Joseph sort of looks like a member of the Taliban, but making a felt beard for a styrofoam ball head is harder than it looks.