We got back from our Salzburg / Cesky Krumlov adventure on the 21st of December (sidenote: Happy Birthday Tina!!) just in time for the last showing of "The Nutcracker" at Narodni Divadlo (aka The National Theatre). It was the first time Mike and I had been to the theatre too and it was gorgeous! Everything. The theatre... the ballet... it was breathtaking. It was a great way to get into the Christmas season and we felt so cultured ;)
One of the odd (in my opinion..) Czech Christmas traditions is carp. Carp is their big Christmas dinner. And how they go about this is they will typically go to the grocery store, where they will have large tanks set up with massive carp swimming around, pick which one they want, and either
a. have it killed and bring it home for Christmas or
b. buy it a couple days before, fill up your bathtub with water and let it swim around for a couple days until you want to eat it. Ew. My friend Pavlina, remembers playing with this carp in the tub when she was a little girl. Naming it... Then its Christmas dinner.
Christmas in Prague is beautiful. Especially when you get to show it off to your family. The reaction you get from people who haven't been to the city, always reminds you not to take the beauty of Prague for granted.
We did not have carp for our Christmas dinner. Christmas eve we stuffed a chicken, had some veg and potatoes, made some appies, and celebrated. Pretty late in the evening, we started to hear some music outside our building. We looked and it turns out that a group had gathered in the grassy little nativity area and were singing carols. Even though we couldn't understand what they were saying, it was really nice to join them for a bit and listen.
Christmas morning, Mike and I opened our stockings that my mom and dad had sent for us. Now, stockings in the Krueger household are the highlight of Christmas morning. There is always amazing little goodies that you never knew you needed and always a lot that just make you smile. All of us "kids", (all late 20's and 6 total since we got married) sit around and open all the individually wrapped treasures in pure excitement. And no, that is not an exaggeration. We truly, truly get psyched for our stockings. And I'm not sure if we'll ever let mom stop the stocking tradition. (She's been trying for the last 10 years...) So it was a little sad for me not to be with my family on Christmas morning, and there might have been a couple small tears, but it was great to have a little piece of home.
We headed into the city on Christmas day, not sure what would be open and kind of hoping it would be quiet, but much to our surprise, tourists everywhere!! I guess we really should have expected it. Everything was open and in full force. We came home in the eve, when it got too cold, and I was able to skype my family in time for their Christmas morning.
All in all, an excellent Christmas in Prague.
Loves. Leah
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