By Heidi Trautmann…..
Christmas morning
Slowly the morning stirs,
dark and still sleepy the house,
it smells of Christmas so close,
of children whispering and the secret
pilfering of home baked cookies.
I crawl back to bed with a full plate,
chuckling childishly, recline in comfort
with the children still asleep.
Please, wait a little longer
before I have to grow up again.
Stephans Kirchen, 1979
Yes, this is Christmas for me, it is the road to it, the baking of cookies with Grandma, the creating of poems and drawings, the practicing of Christmas songs, the secret room where the presents were being made and wrapped, and the Christmas tree was kept behind locked doors until Christmas Eve.
This morning, on 24 Dec 2022, I went to be with the children at ÇADER in Çatalköy, who had come together to bake Christmas cookies just as I used to do it, all prepared and assisted by the ÇADER board members, women who with all their heart and lots of joy try to teach and keep up traditions, and the more varied, the better, this will make children know, understand and respect other cultures.
And while the children were rolling out the dough and forming the cookies, the first trays were already in the oven and the well-known smell wavered through the room.
Finally, the first cookies were ready to taste, they looked so tempting. And when I left them they all sang: “We wish you a Happy Christmas…and a Happy New Year”.
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