I can’t believe that Christmas is already over. Only a few more days and then we will be in 2021. Hopefully, we can slowly start living a »normal« life again. Despite all the Corona measures, we still had a very nice Christmas with our family. Both children were at home and our son’s girlfriend was there too. In the morning we started with a nice breakfast and afterward, we unwrapped presents. Despite the fact that all non-essential stores here have been closed for weeks now and we had to order all the presents on the internet, everyone was very happy with their gifts :). We all managed to order nice things that were also all delivered on time!
In the afternoon I prepared the Christmas dinner. We also had a couple of (Dutch) friends over for dinner who live in the same municipality as us. We have not been allowed to leave our municipality for about a month and a half now, except for necessary things such as work and shopping. So we were seven people all together and luckily everyone enjoyed my cooking. Afterward, we played games. All in all, it was a very successful day :).
By the way, I only found out this year that many Slovenians in our area have the habit of having a Christmas dinner with the family on December 24 instead of on Christmas Day, as we are used to in the Netherlands. I don’t really know whether there is a typical Slovenian Christmas dinner. For example, we often used to eat rabbit at Christmas in the Netherlands. Here, dinner will probably mostly consist of soup, a nice piece of meat, and potatoes.
Unfortunately, we did not have a white Christmas again this year. Here too, they are becoming increasingly rare. Most snow now falls mainly in January and February. In the higher parts, there was a bit of snow in the evening so the next day we saw at least a few white hills ;). But otherwise, we mainly had rain, again so today. My best memory of a white Christmas was here in Slovenia, in 1995. In January of that year, Bine and I met each other and in March I moved here to be with him. We got married in September. So it was our first Christmas together and as I had grown up with the tradition of going to an evening mass on Christmas Eve, I wanted to go there too. Bine and I didn’t have a car but a friend of ours did and he wanted to drive us. We lived just outside Bled at the time, so we attended church there. Mass started at eleven and there was no snow. But when we came out of the church after a good hour, there was! During the time we had been inside the church, it had started to snow and it still did when we came out. Everything was white! What a great experience that was. I was so happy and while all Slovenians around me were grumbling and swearing because they had to clean their car, I was dancing around :).
I hope you all had a nice Christmas and that next Christmas we can get together with more friends and family again and visit our loved ones. Fortunately, the government has made 2 exceptions here: on December 24 from 12 noon until December 25 at 8 p.m. you were allowed to leave the municipality to visit family or friends, as long as you were not with more than 6 adults from a maximum of 2 households. This exception also applies on December 31 from 12:00 to January 1, 8:00 pm. This allowed Bine’s daughter with her husband and children to visit us on December 24th so that we could finally see our grandchildren again :). And it also allows us to visit our friends in another region on January 1 to wish them a happy New Year. We are already looking forward to that! A very happy and Corona Free New Year to everyone!
Happy New Year may it bring good health and good times. I find your blog interesting and would be interested in what things cost. Places you visit or have visited before Covid. Anything to visit that maybe isn’t on the top ten tourist sites. We will be in Slovenia hopefully in June for a couple of days. Ljubljana, Skofja Loka, and Lake Bled.
Hi Len, we like to mostly enjoy nature, which is free ;). In Bled and Ljubljana almost everything is a tourist site :(. When in Bled, go have a “kremsnitte” in pastry bar “Zima and maybe drive up to Mežakla or Pokljuka. Beautiful Alpine pastures! The most well-known pastures are probably Velika Planina. I love it there. Bloško jezero is also nice to see and walk around. So many options :D. I’m sure you will love it! Always welcome for a cup of coffee in Gradenc as well ;). Happy Newyear!