Village Christmas Fete.

Coffee, Songs and Advent's Kranz...

All the hard work by the Village Elves, culminated in the ' Fete ' day, that was held yesterday. We displayed all our wares and waited for the crowds to arrive. No disappointment there...in fact we were already selling the Christmas-Kranz ( wreath ) before the doors officially opened. When you are good, you are good !

My job for the Fete was to help man the till. Great job, as I got to meet and see most people. This year I graduated from just getting the odd nod here or there, to folks coming over to speak to me. That was the nicest thing to me. Often we don't understand, that it is just as hard for other people to speak with us as it is or us to speak with them !

Bob, when he came in with me, was instantly seconded to a candle lighter. He was rather pleased to be included and happy that his job was a once off '15 min ' thing ! So the rest of the afternoon saw him flitting between my station and his table ( where the wine was waiting ).

Bob was also ' shooting the breeze ' with a lot of people and most importantly was having a good time. At one point, while he was sitting at his table ( front row ), a lot of the kids, who come to our English class, stopped and loudly chorused ( in English ), " Hello Bob, how are you ? ".
Well, Bob told me, he was chuffed that they remembered, but also slightly embarrassed by the fact that most people turned and had a little chuckle...

The local, yet rather famous, choir performed a few Christmas carols. They have such great harmony, that just listening to their performance lifts your spirits and has you humming along. They always elicit an ' encore ', and rightly so.

A lot of our friends and family, living in the different Metropolis Cities across the world, often wonder how we manage in such a small village and most importantly if we have any type of entertainment...Well, life in this small village is fabulous, at times hectic but never boring. I think that there are actually more parties and functions here, than in the big cities ! But the dot on the
" i " is pure and simple... when you go to parties and functions, you always know someone or someone knows you...

Biggi

Cakes are always a hit.

The hall is looking good with it's X-mas decoration and is filling up.

At the till...

The wonderful choir..." Like a Rainbow "

A few of the local kids performing a song.

Decorating The Christmas Wreath.

It is not that difficult.

Granted, my last thirty Christmas's were celebrated in hot and blistering weather with Father Christmas still sporting a beard yet being sporty in shorts ( some daring ones even in swimming trunks ). Lounging around the swimming pool after scrumptious X-Mas lunches really only left enough energy to admire the various X-Mas Decorations.

Until I moved here last year, I had never even thought of trying to make X-Mas things myself. Once I helped with it, some distant memories of doing craft at Kindergarten resurfaced. Along with it came the anticipation of Christmas. The one with snow, Gluehwein, a tree full of presents and a sighting of Father Christmas's red pants !

This whole week, our Community center has turned into command central for the Village X-mas elves...yes, us. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's a great week of camaraderie, meeting people and just having a jolly good time. After having helped the first day with making the wreath base, I helped a few mornings decorating a few of them.

Creativity is not one of my strengths, but they made it look so easy. There was no pressure as we could do up the wreath mainly to our own taste. Obviously there were a few guidelines, to avoid some of the wreath looking like " Oh my God, what happened here " and running the risk of being left on the sales shelf..

Doing it step by step was a life safer for me. Putting candles, then bows and finally gluing various ornaments to match the colour - schemes. The work was not without ' danger ' as there were lots of spiky things and a hot glue gun.

The latter had it in for me. It seems stupid to be caught out by it, but throughout the mornings I had small, rather insignificant, yet decidedly ' Ouch ' encounters with the glue gun, culminating in ' branding ' myself on my finger. I am convinced that I could almost hear the sizzle, just like when the cows get branded. My own fault, as I was most likely chatting and not watching where the hot glue was getting stuck to....my finger !

After seeing the battle scars of the seasoned decorators, I felt a little bit less stupid. At next years event I will be a whiz with the hot glue gun and hopefully also with everything else. Life is just dandy, here in our part of Burgenland...

Biggi

My 'Green ' theme...

One morning's work...the three that are on the black bag.