It’s the most wonderful time of the year… and it’s over just as quick as it came. Can you believe it? All those weeks of planning, rushing from store to store and decorating the house – and it all is over now. In this post, I wanna tell you a little more about how we Bogni’s celebrate this holiday along with some pictures from our walk through Bruneck the other day. 🙂

First things first: I’m a big fan of christmas, especially the pre-christmas time. I enjoy the bright lights in the city, the smell of mulled wine and cinnamon wherever you go and the christmas songs on the radio. Visits to the various christmas markets around the city are obligatory. I’m always looking forward to our annual “christmas baking day”, usually on one of the first weekends in december when we would produce mountains and mountains of cookies and other festive treats. And – believe it or not – I don’t even mind the cold! Having grown up in the Italian Alps I’m that kind of person who would only roll her eyes when someone starts to complain about -3° Celsius.

Pah, amateurs.

*rolls eyes*

And whenever I think of christmas, I’m immediately taken back to my childhood in the mountains. My Austrian grandparents would come to Italy every year and I would wake up to the smell of bean soup that my granny was already cooking early in the kitchen. My grandfather would usually sit in the living room, watching sports or simply skipping through the channels for hours, driving everyone else in the room crazy with his indecisiveness.

My Mom and me would usually do all the decorating and other preparations while my brother would do his best to make himself disappear so he wouldn’t have to move a single finger. And last but not least, my dad. He is always in charge of cooking the big dinners for the 6 of us, which, on christmas eve always consists of fish and in the following days is mostly pasta and other delicious plates.

I do consider myself a family person. It makes me happy to have all my dear ones around me, even if it’s not all of them since there’s also the Italian half, but anyway… A full and busy house on christmas has already become a standard and is one thing that makes this holiday so special for me. Especially now that the members of our family are spread all across central Europe it is always a pleasant feeling to come home and have everyone together.

When my brother and I were still children and believed in Christkind, every christmas eve, our grandparents would take us for an evening walk. They would always receive a call from Mom, when we were allowed to head back and as soon as we stepped through the front door, Christkind (aka Mom) would ring its bell and signalize its presence. My brother and I would then always hurry to take off our boots and race to the living room where, all of a sudden, the christmas tree was surrounded by presents and the candles on it were burning. And as usual, we just missed Christkind. THAT was the magic of christmas.

Even though we couldn’t wait any longer, we were not allowed to open the packages just yet – first, we had to endure 2 awfully long minutes of christmas caroling, what usually went (and still goes) like this: Everyone starts off confidently, singing the 1st strofa of Silent night. After that, the first singers are starting to drop out, switching to humming the melody while the others are still struggling with the correct lyrics. We have arrived at the last strofa and everyone is humming and gently rocking from side to side, eyes fixed at the christmas tree. And as soon as the song is over my Mom would burst out into tears, what would make me start to cry as well and then the men would laugh at us and we would all hug each other and wish everyone merry christmas.

And then – finally – we could open the presents. I’m really happy with what I got this year and I thought of writing a separate short post about it. Let me know if that would be something you’re interested in! 🙂

Anyway, later on we would all sit around the big dinner table and enjoy the delicious 4-course fish meal until we couldn’t have another single bite.

But once christmas eve is over, what happens next? Not much, honestly. We’re all enjoying our days off and the time together. Us ladies usually go shopping, taking advantage of all the post-christmas sales. On some days I would go snowboarding or meet with friends. Since I’m only here every few months or so the days are usually packed with things I wanna do and people I gotta see. At the end of the day I’m always exhausted, but in a good way. I like the feeling of having accomplished something, it makes me feel productive. But I’m not gonna lie, there are also days that I would rather spend in my pajamas on the couch, watching Netflix all day.

That was it for now, I would say. My grandparents and brother are leaving tomorrow, heading back to Vienna while my parents and I will stay over new year’s eve until the 6th of January, maybe. I will keep you posted on all the events and other stuff here, so stay tuned!

And lastly, a belated merry christmas to you all!