Peace and Harmony Award

Merry Christmas to you all! We hope you had and are still having wonderful days with lots of love from your family and friends. We most certainly are!

Some days ago, our little blog got awarded the Peace and Harmony Award. Wow! Michelle and I agreed that Christmas would be the best time to blog about this award. After all, Christmas should be a time of peace and joy! 

We got the award from Jodi from Lupey Loops (she talkes about the award here)  and we feel very humble to be in included in her list of blogs which foster peace and harmony. Had we been awarded first, Jodi would certainly have been in our list. Like Michelle and me, Jodi battles with chronic autoimmune illness. Her blog is a great resource for people with chronic illness and she has such a positive view on life which shows in and between the lines she writes. :)

The Harmony & Peace Award is an invention of Barbara Mattio (IdealisticRebel). The award aims to "celebrate all those who promote Harmony & Peace, and who add Love & Beauty to the world through their Blogs and through their lives.  Their Positivity makes the world a better place for all of us."

Jodi included a very kind description of our blog: "The story of friendship between Michelle and Anne who live on opposite sides of the globe (Australia & Germany). They describe their friendship here and invite their readers to become a part of their friendship circle as they blog about craft, cooking and good company. Anne and Michelle prove that living in different hemispheres is no barrier to cultivating friendships." Thanks Jodi!! :)

We decided to honor the award by telling you about our Christmases in Germany and Australia. That way we can show you that Christmas on different sides of the world can be very different and same in spirit at once!

Anne

Christmas is a very special time of the year for me. It's the meaning and the whole atmosphere which I hold very close to my heart and every year I can't wait for the first advent; that is, for the start of the christmas season. 

We always have a real Christmas tree. The one at my parents' house is always up to the roof of the room and I remember the Christmas mornings when I woke up and raced down to see the decorated tree (my parents put the decorations up at night). Nowadays, I celebrate Christmas Eve with my boyfriend at home in Dortmund. Our tree is not as big as my parent's tree but still not small (1,65 m this year). We decorate on Christmas Eve and the tree holds a lot of memories as we put up glass globes we brought home from places we visited all over the world. This year the tree included globes from London, Paris, Groningen, Vienna, Sydney, Vancouver and Stockholm!

Christmas Eve (the day Germans celebrate) we go to church. It wouldn't be Christmas without the song "Oh du Fröhliche"! Afterwards we take time to cook and enjoy a good glass of wine. This year we had duck. Yumm! Lucky me - the boyfriend cooked it. He is so much better at cooking than me!

At night, we always take a walk. I love this outside time! It is very quite and peaceful and the windows of the houses are alight. One can see the sparkling Christmas trees and happy faces. What a wonderful and special time!

On the first day of Christmas, we drive up to the boyfriend's family. On the second day of Christmas, we celebrate with my family. Four generations! And the boys are certainly in the lower number: 8 female and 4 male! There has been only girls on this side of the family for a couple of generations!

I love giving gifts! I am usually much more excited about giving gifts than reciving some (I still love them though!). This year, I made sure to include our neighbours. We live in a house with 10 families. The boyfriend and I made chocolate on a stick which can be put in hot chocolate. We made three different kinds: Dark Chocolate with Red Pepper, White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate with Vanilla. I hope the liked their gifts! There were also some picture books for the small kids (I couldn't resist!). :) A lot of my gifts were handmade this year. My work ladies got little glasses with Christmas Milk Rice for example and my Granny got the blanket I showed you some weeks ago. I love giving handmade gifts as I hope it shows my love! 

Michelle

Christmas in our house has changed a lot since I was little. Then, all our celebration was on Christmas Day, and we would race down the stairs on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought us. We weren't allowed to open any presents until after church - lucky there was a 7:30am service! My parents put a lot of effort into making us believe in Santa: chewed carrots and grass in the water bucket we put out for the reindeer, and Santa always polished off the milk and cookies we left out for him! After church, we had a lovely breakfast and opened presents. The big celebration was for lunch, and we always ate very very well.

One thing that hasn't changed about Christmas is that we have our extended family parties beforehand - sometimes in November! This meant that we (and everyone else) didn't have to rush around on Christmas to see everyone. Now we visit Kiah's family a few days after Christmas for a delicious lunch :)

Since we had the house at Lake Macquarie, we have come up here for the two weeks including Christmas and New Years. We have also started celebrating on Christmas Eve with a big dinner with friends and our immediate family. 

Then on Christmas Day we go to church up here, and then usually everyone has a nap! For lunch we have slow roasted pork belly with apple jam and lots of vegies. In the afternoon everyone relaxes and maybe has more naps!

Our family doesn't get very excited about Christmas decorations. We have a plastic tree which lights up itself, and a few things hanging around the house that Mum has made. Maybe when we have little ones again we will get more into decorations :)

The Harmony & Peace Award Rules are:

1. Give this award to seven bloggers who have added Harmony & Peace, Love & Beauty and Positivity to the world you live in.
2. Let them know that you nominated them.
3. Acknowledge the blogger from whom you received this award.
4. Display your award on your blog, because  you have earned it!
5. Continue to live in Harmony & Peace.

Phew, it is pretty hard to choose seven blogs only! I love reading every blog on my reading list because the tales from all over the world brighten my day and make me smile! So in our hearts all of them are nominated!

Anyway, here are our 7 nominees:

1. Funky Crochet: Ingrid is originally from Germany, used to live in the UK and now lives in Belgium. She is a great example how one can become part of a new world no matter where one originally comes from! She is a very kind lady and this year both Michelle and I received handmade Christmas cards from her! Thanks Ingrid for making our Christmas more colourful!

2. Mias Landliv: Mia blogs about her life in Norway and always includes wonderful and peaceful pictures. Whenever I read her blog, I feel at peace. It is as if her photos carry one to a different world!

3. Wool and Cats: Géraldine makes the world a better place though her amazing pictures. Every Friday she posts a weekend still and the pic is always amazing and full of harmony. She reminds one how important it is to notice the small things in life and the beauty of nature.  

4. The Little Bee: Alia's page isn't exactly a blog but she collects wonderful things on Instagram. Her Sunday Shawl is a wonderful example how a crochet pattern can bring together people from all different kind of cultures and countries. People from all over the world have crocheted the shawl and each one is loved. Crochet is such a wonderful and harmonious way to bring people together!

5. Vacuuming on Holidays: Bernie's blog is very new but holds a wonderful idea. Bernie says about herself that she is on her way to happiness and she documents her way on the blog. Each week she blogs about the things which made her smile. What a great idea! It is so important for all of us that peace and harmony can be all around is and a smile is the best way to show it! Smiling makes the world a better place (which is why I try to make sure to smile at as many people as possible!).

6. Woollybluebells: Helen is a wanderer between worlds like us. She blogs about special things from the UK and Germany - cultures she holds very dear in her heart. In German there is a word for her: Weltbürger. This means "world citizen". If there were more Weltbürger on the world, that is people who don't care about borders and enjoy different cultures instead, the world would be a way more peaceful place! Thanks Helen for being a Weltbürger!

7. Jet Georgette: Our lovely friend Alex from Perth blogs about clothes, fashion and style. The tagline for her blog is "self-esteem isn't a size tag", which pretty much sums up her philosophy! I love reading through her blog to get ideas for fashion and style for those of us who aren't a perfect size 8 :) What a great message to the world! We should all learn to be so accepting and at peace with our own bodies.