German Christmas in a dry cabin
In 2001, a German young couple invited us into their dry cabin to celebrate the end of the semester. They also had left Germany in the same summer as us, and it was also their first Christmas season in Alaska.
When we arrived at the dry cabin that they had rented from a young Danish woman who had just got married, we were quite impressed that they had a Christmas tree decorated the German way. “Aren’t you afraid that the candles will set this wood cabin on fire? The needles are already dry!” my husband said with real concern. He had been involved in fire research and performed various apartment fire experiments using identical Ikea furniture. “You not even have 5 minutes to get out before a fire will flash over” he warned them.
“We already thought that we should not burn the candles at Christmas” our hostess responded. She continued, “We just took the tree off this property three days ago and it already looses the needles! Incredible! It is worse than the trees you got in Germany that were already harvested in November.”
My husband and I looked at each other. He nodded and I said, “We had been told by a colleague that we should not take a tree from our landlord’s property.” I just wanted to continue my speech when she said, “Don’t worry, we did not steal it, we asked her and she did not mind.” “No, no, it’s not about that. There are so many trees, they won’t even notice or miss one. It’s about the trees themselves. Once they have been frozen and they are frozen since early October, they will start needling immediately once you put them into the warmth. That’s why Kiwanis International sell imported trees in that heated hall at the Tanana Valley Fair Ground. They even tell you to cover the tree on the way to your house.”
Did you know that frozen Christmas trees will loose their needles in no time? Do you have a Christmas tree? Is it a real or fake one? Do you like the fake ones? Let me know by email, I am curious.
If you like this story tweet your friends a great story about Alaskan immigrants.
What is your Christmas story? What do you do on Christmas? Do you celebrate with friends or the family? Have a great Christmas season.
Winter work outfit
In this OOTD, I went for an ecclectic winter office look. You may also call it Alaska street style if you like. I wanted to add color to the winter gray and white that we had had for a couple of days. Thus, I created an outfit with more than three or four colors. To not look like a bag of candies I chose muted dark colors that are repeated in various pieces of the outfit. The turquoise and purple of the scarf and turquoise and purple in the pattern of the riding jacket tie the sweater and tight of the outfit together. The jacket also features brown which is repeated by the booties and the sheath, which I wore as skirt.
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Photos: G. Kramm
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