let the christmas spirit ring

as i was going to write yet another "catching up" post, i started going through my photos and thinking about what i've been up to this past month, i quickly realized - other than showing up at work, getting my lessons done, running necessary errands, and hanging out with my buddies at the hostel in the evenings -  it hasn't been about much else than letting that good old comforting christmas spirit wash over me, looking forward to and slowly preparing for the holidays. there were a number of years when i really tried to resist loving and enjoying the holidays and its preparations, even tried to put on and wear the role and costume of grinch, but eventually i had to give that job up, and admit that i was a total christmas junkie. 

first of all,  i love, love, love winter. i can hardly wait for the first snow of the year from mid october. i stick my nose to the cold glass of the window for long minutes, stare out into the dark and (sometimes not so) cold night, and pray to dear old Holleanyó to shake shake shake her pillow, just a little bit, just for me, just so the world is covered with this beautiful fluffy thing called snow, and so everthing looks magical, just for the night. most of the time my prayer comes in the form of a gentle request, as i hope that Her Majesty Holleanyó will give in to my craving, and will listen my somewhat pathetic begging. 

but then there are other times, for example when it's past the middle of december, and i still haven't seen a single snowflake falling down from the sky. then i lose my temper, i become much less humble, my voice turns much more firm, and  i start yelling on the top of my lungs, dircetly at Holleanyó.  you know, just to make sure that she can hear what i have to say to her. i may even use a mild swearword every once in a while, because that is exactly what such desperate times call for. then i can only hope that my message really got through to her, and she knows how much i want want want a little bit of snow. as a matter of fact, all i want for christmas this year (just like last year) is a few inches of the fluffy white thing that turns the world magical. (and i don't mean this kind of snow.) but so far my prayers haven't been answered. yet. so i guess she is trying to teach me a lesson. is she teaching me to be more patient? yeah, probably. but for goodness sake, i am patient enough! you have no idea how much less patient i used to be. i used to be waaaaaay worse patience-wise. and anyway, why can't i have what i really really really want right now?! why can't "hurry the fuck up" be a virtue? so, i guess, i'll have to crawl back to the window, stick my nose to the glass, and start murmuring my hardly audible but ever so humble prayers to Her Majesty. 

but in the meantime, let my tell you how we got here. christmas spirit-wise, i mean.

it all started in the middle of november, when on one quite chilly wednesday evening i went to the christmas fair in vörösmarty tér with a friend of mine. christmas spirit had just started rising, snow was nowhere to be found, neither close, nor far. yet, we decided to take a walk at the fair, and have a look around and see what santa's helpers had to offer this year. it's fairly pretty, isn't it?

then one saturday evening, at end of november, i started learning knitting. it had occurred to me that i had written a new years' resolution list last december, and as the year is coming to its end, i should probably check the list and see to the uncompleted tasks. learning to knit and learning to crochet were two items that could most certainly be completed by the end of december. so i bought a pair of knitting needles and a ball of bright red yarn, and on that fine saturday afternoon i sat down in front of my laptop, and googled "knitting for beginners". (isn't it slightly strange that we live in an age when we don't turn to our mothers or grandmas when we want to learn to knit, but we go straight to our know-it-all friend, google? or is it just me?) in no time i found an utterly helpful video on youtube that taught me the first steps of knitting. a few minutes, and a number of exercise lines later, i was off, knitting away, and working on my very first scarf. the plan is to finish it before christmas. as of now, the thing-that-is-turning-into-a-scarf is about 70 cm long, which is about one third of the full length, so i really have to get down to business this week. then, between christmas and new year's eve i will start mastering the art of crocheting. not bad, huh?

in fact, i even shared my brand new knowledge with a friend of mine: i taught anita knitting, and she is also working on her first scarf. it's sort of become  a competition between us: who can finish first? well, we will see, we will see.

as the christmas spirit was rising, and it came to the first sunday of advent, we decided to decorate the windows of our nook at the end of the corridor on our floor in the hostel . i tell you what, it was no walk in the park cutting all those snowflakes and snowy hills and pinewood out. but it was most certainly worth effort and the time. 

then, on the second sunday of advent, during one exhausting shopping trip to tesco's we bought a fake cute little christmas tree and some ornaments to decorate it with. to be honest, i have never been a big fan of fake christmas trees; in fact, i have always disliked them. having a fake tree at christmas is the last thing that i can imagine for my family in our home. to me, fake trees are the real grinches of christmas. simply because they are ugly, do not smell nice at all (ahhh, that heavenly scent of pinewood!), and they simply lack the real christmas spirit. yet, i gave in to this one, because this was not ugly it all, and, even though it did not smell nice the slightest bit, it did have some sort of christmas spirit. so it got the nod of approval. and you know what? decorated with the ornaments and the twinkle lights, it didn't turn out half bad, that's for sure! as a matter of fact, it's pretty much the cutest and most beautiful fake little christmas tree that i have seen lately. 

...and since early december it has all been about counting down the days till the beginning of winter break. by the end of november, i learned that the language school would only be open until mid december, as people are busy running up and down, preparing for the holidays, or snowed under with work at this time of the year. as i also had quite a few errands to run, the days passed by quickly; yet, i could hardly wait for being at home, enjoying the comfort of our nook. i roamed shop after shop after shop, and browsed books, dvds and cds for long hours half hours to find the perfect presents for my dearests and nearsts, hid teeny present in some of my friends' boots on december 6,  made yummy american style pancakes with and without banana and feasted my buddies with them - accompanied by the previously hunted down maple syrup that we had never tried before. then, for first time in my life, i baked gingerbread cookies, and they really turned out great, thin and biscuit-like, and they disappeared so fast, that i never got to decorate or photograph them. i visited the christmas fair in front of basilica, hoping to capture the christmas spirit in some pretty photos. but intstead of snow, rain was pouring down from the darkest of skies, and i could not help but keep crooning that bittersweet coldplay song, you're still waiting for the snow to fall, and it doesn't really feel like christmas at all...

and now i have been home for over a week, and it very much feels like christmas: this past few days i have been busy baking two other batches of gingerbread cookies - one traditional hungarian style made with honey, an american style one made with molasses and ginger. the decorating is still yet to be done, though. i also made eggnog that turned out heavenly, did a ridiculous amount of shopping, tried finding the yummiest szaloncukor, and have been knitting away for long hours while having how i met your mother marathons in the evenings.

yesterday i picked out the perfect tree with my mom. it's much larger both length- and width-wise than we had planned, but it was so beautiful, smelled so nice, and was such a bargain that we i just had to have it. (i was a complete and utter child again when buying the tree. and you know how eager moms can get to see their dearest offsprings happy.) so we ended up with this enormous tree, that will take up half of the room, and we will even have to rearrange the furniture, that was so heavy my tiny mom could not even lift it off the ground. so right after i gave The Perfect Tree an enormous hug, because its perfection and greatness made me so so happy i almost jumped out of my skin, i picked it up, and at times dragged it home, but mostly carried it as a trophy, gloriously. as we were waiting for the local bus to take us home, four other families appeared with freshly bought trees in hand. small talk took over our quiet wait in no time. thus, the great discussion of whose tree was how much? where was it found? and whose is the best? took place. all the other trees had NOTHING on ours, hence, we won the Great Christmas Tree Beauty Contest of 2011. congratulations are most certainly in order!

and now it's friday afternoon, 23rd december, i still have one enormous shopping spree in front of me which i will get to in an hour or so. as you know, i am the person of the last minute; therefore, i never fail to leave my christmas shopping to the very last hours. so now i am off, and please cross your fingers that i'll survive the smashing crowd of people that i'll join battle with.

PS: i started writing this post on monday, but only finished and published it on friday. on wednesday there was some very mild snowing, but it disappeared right after hitting the ground.