It's almost next year!

Gizzy is my model for this doggy coat (or cat sweater) that I finished this morning:

I woke him up to do this photo shoot, so he looks quite sleepy, poor boy!

This snowflake doggy/cat sweater is for sale in my Etsy shop. (I can also make it in other colors!) Again, any and all my followers get a 10% discount!

I also want to share a popular German New Years Eve alcoholic punch recipe with you, but it needs to be started the night before (Thursday) so you'll have it ready by New Year's Eve! The measurements are approximate and you can ad-lib, but for your first-time, I would recommend sticking to this recipe till you've tasted it once.

The punch drink is called Bowle and you can make it with different fruit and there are a lot of different recipes, but this is the way we made it at the Sturm household.All you need is this:

1-2 cans pineapple chunks or fresh cut up pineapple
1 bottle white wine
1 bottle champagne
1 bottle seltzer water
1 bottle 7 Up (optional)
some dark (or light) rum
3 Tablespoons sugar
Punch bowl set and ice (optional)

At home, we always made this with pineapple, because we all liked pineapple, but it also holds its shape nicely and absorbs the rum without getting mushy. You can make it with fresh strawberries (not frozen - don't use frozen fruits at all) and use pink champagne for a pink strawberry bowle for a Valentine's party perhaps -  and instead of rum, you could use cognac or brandy for it - the possibilities are endless.

Ananasbowl or Pineapple Bowle 

(don't you just love the German word Ananas? It means pineapple - how fun is that?)

Start the night before the party and place one large can of drained pineapple chunks in the bottom of your punch bowl. Sprinkle with about 3 Tablespoons of sugar and add enough dark rum (good quality) to cover fruit entirely. Cover punch bowl and allow to soak overnight!

Right before the party, pour in a bottle of decent white wine (such as Fetzer or Sutter Home or similar) and a bottle of Champagne (white, not Cold Duck or Asti Spumante) - and a bottle of club soda (for extra bubbles) and (if your punch bowl is big enough) a liter bottle of  7-Up....stir gently and serve. 

NOTE: You can add chilled beverages and place the punch bowl on ice to keep everything refreshing, but you don't have to...just don't add any ice cubes to the punch, please!

Serve each guest just 2 chunks of pineapple with each cup or else you run out of pineapple before the punch is gone...and everyone wants to taste the pineapple...if you really want to, you could marinate an extra can of pineapple chunks in a separate bowl overnight  with the sugar and dark rum so that you could add more fruit if needed...trust me, this punch won't last!

Prosit Neujahr! (Pro- zit noy-yar)

Here you can read about some German New Year's customs and why we call New Year's Eve Silvester.

Growing up, we exchanged little symbols of good luck (tokens) made out of chocolate or marzipan to wish each other a happy/lucky New Year, such as:

toadstools (red mushroom with white dots)

chimney sweep

shiny new penny

little piglet

four-leaf clover
ladybug

and sometimes my Oma would do a little led pouring (bleigiessen)

German New Year's always includes a big Fireworks display. Everyone gets fireworks and lights them at home. This is Germany's biggest fireworks time, because there is no Independence Day over there, so New Year's Eve is IT! --- BIG TIME!!!

If you still need another New Year's Resolution, take a look on About.com and see their German Word of the Day section. Now you can learn a German word each day - at your own pace - and if you get stuck, you can ask me or one of my other fellow German bloggers!

I want to learn Spanish and will give About.com a try in their Start Learning Spanish section. Learning another language or an instrument is good brain acrobatics, did you know? It helps keep your brain churning and therefore more nimble for a longer actively thinking mind. (God knows I can use all the help I can get.)

Happy New Year! 

Gizzy and I are going to stay home, light some sparklers (outside, this time) have too many snacks, call a couple of people and watch a movie - or two! That ought to keep us out of harm's way!