German Christmas pt. 8

Next thing I knew, it was Christmas. Well, Christmas Eve to be more exact. They don't really celebrate the actual Christmas day here but they make the party the 24th. So I awoke to a hectic house. Preparations. Preparations. Preparations. In Mr.J's house they have a preparty party, where the mom makes lots of cake, lots of coffee and gifts and conversation are exchanged.
As I made myself ready I could hear all the drama downstairs but I was glad I didn't understand what was going on. The German was too fast for me and my vocabulary never seems to be enough. Some of what I did understand was that the mom told Mr.J's sister to get some chairs from upstairs, she didn't want to and told Mr.J to do it but Mr.J was too busy figuring out how the iron worked so he could iron his pants. A lot of scary angry German language ensued and thus I experienced true fear. You have never experienced fear until you've experienced Germans yelling at each other over God-knows-what.
But things calmed down and I went downstairs as soon as I heard the first guests at the door. Soon the house was full of laughter, cake, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and Lotti, Mr.J's dog.lotti was dressed as Santa Claus and spent the afternoon trying to avoid Lutzi the Pug who also came to visit. Apparently they are mortal enemies.
I spent the afternoon trying to understand what people were saying and it was exhausting. I don't think my brain could take it anymore. But also, I spent the afternoon cooking the turkey for the night. I had seen the huge turkey the night before and thought that we should take it out but Mr.J said no and by the time it arrived to the house the next day it was still frozen. I thought we would need a Christmas miracle if we wanted to eat that day but an hour later the turkey was ready to be prepared and put in the oven. Mr.J had asked me how we prepare the turkey in Puerto Rico and of course because I had never actually done this I had to ask my mom. After I told Mr.J how we actually do it he felt the Germans wouldn't want the ridiculous amount of garlic we use. I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit offended! Why would he ask me how to prepare the turkey if he didn't want to use my techniques? By the time we had to prepare the turkey he realized how silly he was and we put some garlic. It smelled delicious. We also incorporated a technique we use in Puerto Rico and that is taking an injection and injecting the turkey with its own juices. Every 30 min we did this and so it occupied most of the afternoon.
Then came Christmas dinner which is held at the house of Mr.J's sister. I wasn't hungry. I had a cheesecake binge during the day! So while the turkey cooked some more I played with Mr.J's niece.