Christmas with Bookatiepillar – First Christmas in the Netherlands

Christmas will be different this year. My mum is coming to the Netherlands to spend Christmas with us. My boyfriend’s mum is joining us as well so it will be four of us – the more the merrier.

This year I am honoured to make Slovakian Christmas and introduce part of my culture to the Dutch people I care about. My mum and I will be hopefully starting a new tradition: Christmas abroad.

I started preparations for Christmas two weeks ahead; as per the tradition, we deep cleaned the house. It took us all weekend. We cleaned the living room, pulled sofas away hoovered behind them, cleaned windows from inside. We emptied all of the cupboards and cleaned the insides in the kitchen. The oven was deep cleaned too. It was hard work to clean up three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and spacious living room. I am good with keeping the house as clean as possible during the year (we have a cat now so it is harder) but for the holidays I wanted to go a bit extra.

And by extra I mean I actually baked! It is only four of us so I didn’t want to make too much but I felt that something homemade should be on the table.

The recipe I used for the gingerbread cookies is in Slovakian language because these are traditional Slovakian cookies. I have never made these before and I am very impressed with the outcome. I also decorated the cookies myself and I think I discovered mine my hidden talent! I am so excited about these cookies I am actually planning to do one more batch today and decorate them as this was great fun! My mum brought a poppy cake from Slovakia which is also a very traditional Slovakian Christmas cake. I also made chocolate brownies covered in white chocolate and bought various biscuits. 

We decorated the Christmas tree with my boyfriend. This was a very first year we have done this together and it felt really special. We made a short video as I wanted to keep this memory forever. I will post this video on IGTV if you are curious, go to my Instagram to have a look. The colours of our three are gold and red and all of the decorations are plastic, not glass because I was worried if Luna (the cat) will find them amusing and wants to play with them. I thought it would be safer if they are not breakable. Luckily, she is not too bothered by the Christmas tree decorations she does like the presents under the tree and loves to chew on them though.

My mum and I are making Christmas lunch and Christmas dinner according to our own tradition that I described in the previous Christmas article. The “kapustnica” soup will be served for lunch and the red cabbage with meat and “knedlik” for dinner. We are planning to have dinner on 24th of December and open the Christmas presents and enjoy the evening talking to each other and listening to some Christmas songs, maybe watch a movie. We usually watch Slovakian stories and movies but I think I will try to introduce my mum and my boyfriend's mum to each other as much as possible. I will be interpretuer this evening as my mum doesn't speak English so this will be a little challenge for me. 

I am hoping that this Christmas will be magical as it is the first one for me in the Netherlands and very first one with my boyfriend and his family. I enjoy everything this year in a different way but I am making the best of it. 

What else can I say before the end of the article but: Merry Christmas everyone! Let it be a peaceful and happy one spend with your family and loved once around you. 

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Christmas with Bookatiepillar– My Christmas

I wrote about Traditional Slovakian Christmas in my previous article and today it is time to tell you what Bookatiepillar Christmas is like.

I live abroad since I finished a university; firstly I was in England and now I live in the Netherlands; so it is a tradition that first thing I buy for Christmas is a flight ticket home. My family lives in Slovakia and that is why I return there as much as I can. But it is a must for Christmas because the season is all about family. When I was little we spent Christmas with my grandparents; after they passed away it was only my mum and me. My parents are divorced and my dad spends Christmas with his side of the family.

A lot of things depend on the flight ticket availability and if I get days off work, but I try to fly home few days (maybe even a week) before Christmas so I can help with cleaning and preparations. I usually buy presents once I am in Slovakia unless I want to bring something that is not available in Slovakia. From abroad I usually bring sweets or snacks. 

Slovakia in December is cold, and very often covered in snow. The town where I come from is right at the foot of the High Tatras known for having the best Christmas decoration in the town square with a lot of starts and all of the trees have lights. As much as I love it I hate it too... I always think of how much electricity these lights need and how bad it is for our planet. Be sensible with your Christmas lights this year; so we can light them up for many more years. 

We go to the town square in the early evening for a cup or two of mulled wine. My hometown is very small so we usually meet other friends or family members. This is one of my favourite thing to do.  There are Christmas songs playing from various stands, people are wrapped in coats and heavy scarfs. The atmosphere is magical and you can feel the Christmas in the air.

The 24^th of December, Christmas Day, I spend with my mum. 

First of all, we have a coffee and a light breakfast. We look at the TV Program magazine which we buy only during the Christmas period; I get a marker and highlight all of the movies we want to watch during the three upcoming days. After we finish our coffee I help my mum with some cleaning or I go to the shop if she forgot to buy something. We usually do Christmas tree on the Christmas Day as well. I play Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone soundtrack and decorate the tree in the living room while my mum works on dinner in the kitchen. We live in a small flat so if the music is not too loud we can talk to each other. I have to hoover again after the tree is up because the plastic Christmas needles and glitter from the Christmas decorations are everywhere, then we put presents under the tree. If there is a movie on the TV we highlighted we both sit down and watch it together. We usually get a snack, a cup of tea, another coffee or we have a quick lunch during the movie. For lunch, we have traditional Slovakian Christmas soup “Kapustnica” (mentioned in the previous article, there is also a recipe link so go to check it out). I set up the table and arrange the small cakes, fruit, and snacks on the trays and bowls after lunch.

Christmas 2016

Christmas 2017

We have dinner between five and seven but if there is a Christmas movie we want to watch we move the dinner forwards of backward. We dress up after all housework is done just before dinner to make it feel fancier, special, like a celebration that it is. The candles are lit and everything is set up so let’s talk about food. We have two courses for Christmas dinner, but we start with the aperitif, usually red wine; when I was younger Christmas was the only day when I was allowed to drink cola so I had that while adults enjoyed wine. My mum usually says a few words about how lovely it is to be together, how thankful we are for what the year brought to us and something positive and wishful for the next year. The first course is chicken and vegetable soup. I love this soup so much and my mum can make it really well. The second course is one of my favourite meals of all time. The red cabbage, pork, and chicken baked in the oven with crispy onion and gravy and “knedlik” (soft white steamed pastry). The fact is that I don’t eat this meal during the year so I am looking forward to Christmas dinner so much! Food is always delicious and it is always too much. 

After dinner, we take our drinks to the living room and open the presents. We don't buy a lot of presents. We don't have any children to spend Christmas with us so we do not pretend that some imaginary character brought the presents. We buy one or two little presents for each other and we unwrap them together. We do try the presents out, for example, we try the clothes on or see if headphone work... etc. The rest of the evening we spend watching the TV and our favourite Christmas movies, and later in the evening, we have a second round of dinner. We have the same second course again just a smaller portion. That is how much we love this meal. Most of the evening is about spending time together. My mum and I have time to catch up and to talk about everything that happened during the year. We go to bed very late on this day.

Next morning the 25th we have breakfast and coffee together again and then I go to visit my dad's side of the family. We all meet at my grandma's house for some food and exchange presents and talk for hours. It is all very cosy and nice and I am looking forward to this holiday all year long. 

The family is the most important thing. 

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Christmas with Bookatiepillar - Traditional Slovakian Christmas

Hello, my fellow Christmas enthusiastic bookworms.

Most of you know I come from a small country in the middle of Europe but not that many of you know that Slovakian Christmas is very traditional with a lot of little habits and rituals. I would like to introduce you to this classic Slovakian Christmas. I will post several Christmas inspired articles in the upcoming weeks and I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing for you… so welcome, on this Christmas adventure!

Christmas decoration in my hometown last year.

So what is Slovakian traditional Christmas? How does Christmas look like or feel like in Slovakia? What are the traditions and rituals that people of this little big country in the heart of Europe have?

The Slovaks celebrate Christmas on 24^th of December. But the preparation starts much earlier than that. People pay a lot of attention during the December to cleaning their houses and flats; everything needs to be perfect, clean, tidy and organized. Windows and curtains are being washed. Plants, window blinds and wall decorations are being dusted. Door handles are being polished so when the time comes the Christmas decorations can be placed around the house. There isn’t agreed day when to decorate but most people prefer to decorate a clean house. Some decide to do it in November or beginning of December some take the Christmas tree out on the Christmas Day.

source: bazar.sk

A lot of baking is done prior Christmas. My grandma used to bake thirty or forty different types of goodies. Yes, you read that right. So baking starts at the beginning of December with the assortment of dry biscuits and Christmas shaped gingerbread cookies. Then closer to Christmas Day, it gets shorter lasting cakes are made with jam and cream, some covered in chocolate some in coconut powder. The amount of cakes is not important but more types the better. These are all small tiny pieces that are considered to be snacks, not the desert type of pies as you would expect.

Few days before the Christmas Day vendors will appear in the town centre to sell fish. The fish usually swim in the fountain or in big buckets. You can buy alive fish, keep it in your bathtub and then kill and cook it on a Christmas day. This is very traditional but only families who can actually handle killing the fish opt for this. Kids usually prefer the fish fingers anyway.

The 24^th of December is Christmas Day. The whole day is dedicated to Christmas, people cook dinner and do last minute decorations, watch Christmas movies and fairy tales. Slovaks do not like western movies such as Home Alone. The preference during the festive season is Czechoslovakian cinematography.

source: Vitarian.sk

During the 24^th everybody is fasting and waiting for the dinner. It is between four and seven in the evening when families sit down at the table and have their Christmas dinner. The meal starts with an aperitif (this could be champagne or wine or liquor) and a few words from the head of the family. The dinner is usually made of three courses. There is a special Christmas starter; waffles with honey and an apple is cut in half to see if a perfect star made of seeds is inside which means that the family will be healthy during the upcoming year. The first course is a sauerkraut soup with smoked ham, mushrooms and sausage called “kapustnica” and the second course is fish and potato salad or mashed potatoes. There is no dessert at the dinner as the Christmas table is full of cookies, mini cakes I mentioned earlier and everybody can help themselves to these goodies as much as they like. This tradition is a source of many jokes, one of my favourites: 

24^th December:

Morning: “Don’t you DARE eating the cakes, they are for Christmas!”

Evening: “Don’t you dare NOT eating the cakes, they are for Christmas!”

There is also a tradition that no one should stand up from the table during the dinner as that brings bad luck, but this is limited by how big your dining table is and if you can fit all of the plates, cakes, decorations and candles and pots and bowls containing the next courses on. Another tradition is to set one extra seat at the table in case an unexpected guest arrives during the dinner.

After the dinner, the presents are unwrapped and tested right away (no matter if you got pens or roller skates you have to try presents out in the living room).

The rest of the evening consists of watching more Christmas TV programs or enjoying a drink with family members. Eating the baked goodies or salted snacks and relaxing with a full belly.

Next days the 25^th and 26^th of December are called First Christmas Holiday and Second Christmas Holiday. People go visit the family members they didn’t see during the Christmas Day; uncles and aunts or best friends or cousins meet for coffee or some food.

Of course, that Christmas is slightly different in each family, but the most important aspect of Slovakian Christmas is togetherness.  

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BR: Môj život kamionistky by Jarmila Zacher Pajpachova 3/5

"Náhodná udalosť ale môže priniesť nesmierne veľa zvratov v ľudskom osude a po každej búrke, predsa len vyjde slniečko."

Toto je skutočný príbeh, ženy ktorá plávala proti prúdu a nevzdala sa ani keď situácia vyzerala úplne beznádejne. Jarmila Zacher Pajpachová nie je spisovateľka, je to žena, ktorá sa rozhodla napísať svoj príbeh a tým dodať silu a energiu iným. Príbeh je krátky, zmestil sa na 106 strán. Možno aj vďaka tomu má dobrú dynamiku a skvelé stupňovanie.

Kniha začína opisom autorkinho detstva, postupne rozpráva o škole a neskôr o láske a manželesvte. No najdôležitejším prvkom v knihe je rodina a vzťahy v nej. Dobré a zlé rodinné vztahy sú do podrobna opísané a skvelo zobrazené a to na mňa urobilo dojem. Záverečné kapitoly knihy sa venujú cestovateľským skúsenostiam počas jazdy na kamióne. Práve tieto sú plné dobrodružsvta a neočakávaných zážitkov. Každej krajine je venonvaná jedna kapitola preto je celý dojem veľmi uhladený a organizovaný. Z celého textu je cítiť neskúsenosť autorky, no nepovažujem to za slabosť. Práve naopak, dodáva to knihe autenticitu. 

Vzhľadom na to, že kniha je autobiografia hlavou postavou je autorka sama, teda Jarmila, okrem nej sa dozvedáme veľa o jej mamke s ktorou mala vynikajúci vzťah, a súčasnom manželovi, ktorého som si veľmi obľubila pretože má skvelý charakter a dobrý zmsel pre humor. 
"Miláčik, ty aj keď budeš mať stopätdesiat rokov, stále sa budeš tlačiť do toho kamióna. Nechápem, že ťa to tak baví."

Kniha sa mi páčila, pretože som si uvedomovala, že veci, ktoré sa v nej odohrali sa naozaj udiali v živote reálnej ženy. Dokonca ma príbeh v záverečnej časti rozplakal. Emócie, ktoré sa zo strán hrnuli boli priamé a skutočné. Mala som možnost autorku stretnút a jej veselá a živá povaha by vám nenapovedala o veciach ktoré v knihe opisuje. Mám pred ňou velký rešpekt.

Môj život kamionisky si prečítajte ak máte radi skutočné príbehy. Ak sa vám páčia knihy, ktoré zobrazujú trpkú cestu životom a to ako sa s nimi človek vysporiada, ako zdvihne hlavu a ide ďalej. A taktiež ak máte radi silné postavy ktoré sa nikdy nevzdávajú.

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