Christmukah Miracles

There's always a lot of talk of Christmas miracles. There are dozens of famous films, books, and made-for-tv-movies dedicated to the subject. I know that I'm in desperate need of a personal Christmas miracle myself. While Adam Sandler sings of "8 Crazy Nights", for me, December will have had 31 by the time it wraps up at midnight tomorrow night.

With 18 nights out in a row before flying back to the US to visit friends and family, I followed this up with the past week and a half of family/friends/latkes fried in oil, nightly drinking, tortes, paté and excessive amounts of chocolate.

When I fly back to London next week, I'm resigned to my luggage being overweight with all of Santa's goodies, but what I'm really hoping for is that I'm not over the weight limit.

The first weekend of December was spent in the Christmas Markets of beautiful Vienna with the wonderful IS, KS, & VF. The tickets had been booked since the summer with the sole purpose of soaking up some of the festive holiday cheer. Quite literally the only plans for the weekend were to 'eat, drink and be merry.' And that's what we did, with gusto and aplomb. I'd like to report that the deliciouso list of food below was not all eaten by me - but shared amongst the four of us...not that that necessarily makes things much better. After a weekend of 'eating, drinking, and being merry', I still forced myself up to head to the gym at 5 am before work that following Monday morning.

Our first night at a local Keller:
Bratwurst mit Kartoffelsalat (roast sausage with potato salad)
Wiener Schnitzel mit Bratkartoffeln (turkey cutlet vienna style with roast potatoes)
Sauerkraut
Weinschorle (wine spritzer)

At our first Weihnachtsmarkt:
Mohnkuchen (poppy seed cake)
Krapfen or Berliner (doughnut concoction)

At our second Weihnachtsmarkt:
Kaesekrainer (sausage with cheese)

At the Cafe Demel:
Apfelstrudel (apple strudel)
Wiener Melange (Viennese cappuccino)
Kleiner Brauner (espresso with whipped cream)

At the Schoenbrunn:
Lauch und Speckfleckerl (pasta with leeks and bacon)
Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) mit Apfelmus (with apple sauce)
Nuernberger Rostbratwuerste mit Bratkartoffeln (little sausages)
Kaiserschmarrn mit Pflaumenmus (fried dough with plum sauce)

Since I've been back in the States I'm probably thrown back my body weight in Christmas cookies, Harpoon Winter Warmer, red meat, and cheese. The only real saving grace? I've also been force feeding workouts into my system every 2-3 days and with only 24 hours to go - I might even get that Miracle after all.