a very worldly brunch/first snow of the winter

This morning, while Nick was in preschool (and daycare after that), I accompanied my friend Jutta to a brunch at her friend Brigitte's house. I know Brigitte a little through Jutta, but had never been to her house before. It's very lavishly and beautifully decorated! The brunch was pretty large - I'd say close to 20 people. Apparently, Brigitte likes to do this sort of thing pretty regularly. Her kids are adults, so she has time for stuff like that! :)

It was a very cosmopolitan gathering of women - the vast majority were German, and then there were an English lady, a French-Canadian lady, a couple of Korean ladies, and a handful of us Americans. The amount of food was staggering! I ended up eating too much savory stuff, so I had no room for dessert, which is a shame, as the dessert table was groaning under all the decadent German goodness. :) The bad part was that while we got there at 10:00, no eating occurred until after 11:00. I should have known - Europeans are very leisurely about these things. I was so starving that as 10:30 came and went, my hunger was all I could think about. When we finally ate, food had never tasted so good!

Another woman there happens to be a pianist, so we were asked to perform a bit. It was very informal, and people sang along with the Christmas carols, so it wasn't really a big deal. I did sing "O, Holy Night" pretty much as a solo, which was nice. And, we sang "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night" in German). At one point, we did a German carol I had never heard of, and it was somewhat taxing to read the unfamiliar music AND the unfamiliar German lyrics at the same time! I was chagrined when I had to leave to get Nick, but I had been there for 3 hours! I got the impression that some of the women would linger much longer. I hope to get invited to her house again.

And the coolest thing happened! As we were singing carols, we noticed that it had started snowing for the first time this winter. It was such a picturesque scene, looking out of Brigitte's picture window at the swirling flakes. It was almost magical that it occurred while we were singing. We Americans immediately decided that a rousing rendition of "Let it Snow" was in order. We sang lustily while the foreigners sat confusedly, chiming in only to sing the words "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" :)

The snow (and even some ice!) hasn't amounted to more than a dusting, but that first time is always lovely, no matter the amount. We were going to go to the Christmas on the Square tonight, but given the bitter cold and yuckiness outside, we'll probably skip it. Oh, well - a cozy, warm night in is fine with me!