One more day until Christmas! We decided to stay in New York over the holidays instead of going home – this was definitely a tough decision and both of us were a little nervous about spending Christmas without family in a foreign country. However, we were set on making the upcoming days as festive as possible to distract ourselves from missing our families too much.
We started off on Monday by baking a ton of Christmas cookies based on family recipes. They turned out very well and we had a enough to feed a whole family. On the 24th itself, the main day of Christmas for us, since we celebrate and unpack presents on Christmas Eve in Germany, we started the day with a walk through sunny Manhattan. It was super warm and we enjoyed some sunshine. Then we facetimed both of our families, who were already in the middle of their celebrations. It was nice to connect with home and to see everyone dressed up and being festive. The whole experience was a mix of appreciating Christmas in New York but also feeling slightly homesick and missing our loved ones.
Christmas Eve – Dec. 24th
Now we prepared for our celebrations: we started cooking Tafelspitz, a classic dish of the Viennese cuisine made of boiled veal or beef in broth, served with a cucumber salad, potatoes and so called “Green Sauce”. The dinner turned out way better than expected!
After dinner, we exchanged our gifts. Alex got Franzi tickets for the famous Shakespeare Theatre “Sleep No More” in the McKittrick Hotel, Franzi got Alex a bunch of gadgets for a roadtrip we are planning in the next year.
Then we changed and headed over to the Carnegie Hall for the New York String Orchestra’s annual Christmas Eve concert featuring an all-Mozart program with Nancy Zhou. Back home, we had a homemade apple tart with vanilla ice cream for dessert and then fell into bed full of emotions.
Christmas Eve and Day
We started the 25th with a walk through the East Village. Since this is the main day of celebrations for the Americans, the sunny streets were empty. Later in the day we made a festive lunch and in the evening we had an Italian dinner at Via Della Pace.
On the 26th, we packed our bags and headed out for a little getaway between the holidays. We rented an AirBnb in High Falls (2 hours north of NYC). Once out the door, we picked up our friend Jay’s car, we were luckily able to borrow and then briefly headed over to the office to pick up Franzi’s Christmas package from her family. It made it to NYC just barely in time for Christmas.
Some entertaining Christmas drama…
Once we were almost out of the city, the engine control light came on. Behind Holland tunnel we stopped at a small mechanic’s shop to see what the issue is. Luckily a friendly mechanic was able to help us by connecting to the Onboard Diagnose System. Luckily no serious issues were reported. Just to make sure there is nothing else going on, he also took a look under the hood. Turns out, this was a mistake. After confirming the engine runs smoothly the hood would not close anymore. After trying for a while we decided to drive over to a Volvo dealership with the hood only barely secured with a small latch. Creeping at 10 miles per hour over the highway we eventually made it safely. We were in luck and the issue was fixed rather quickly so we could finally drive off with a running car.
Finally some relaxation
We spent the days in our little cabin taking long walks, reading and reflecting on the past year. Alex also started another drawing of a tank. We walked the O&W rail trail which started right behind our cabin. We also hiked up the Overlook Mountain Trail, on which you pass an old hotel ruin. After finishing the the icy hike, which was quite adventurous without spikes attached to out boots we visited a Buddhist temple (Karma Triyana Dharmachakra) close by. Hungry from the activities we had a snack at Bread Alone in Woodstock.
We also visited the Peterskill Falls located in a state park reserve. In the evenings we either ate at The Egg’s Nest, other local restaurants or cooked something ourselves and enjoyed some downtime.
