Christmas greetings from Texas

I send you all Merry Christmas greetings from Eureka, a small village in Texas near Dallas.

I hope you all have had joyful and peaceful days without too much stress and that you are still enjoying your last Christmas Day to the fullest. Take time for yourself and your loved ones, and of course, for good food ;)

My Christmas, the day of the journey that I honestly was most afraid of, has been one of the best so far, and the fear was totally unfounded. I found such a wonderful family in Texas who warmly welcomed me into their Christmas celebration, that there was absolutely no room for sadness and homesickness. It is rather a super exciting experience to see how Texans live and celebrate Christmas. There are many rumors about Texas :D Honestly, I had a few prejudices about flying to this southern state because of it. But it is absolutely a great experience and much better than I thought.

Lake at the house

Well, first of all, how did I end up in Texas for Christmas?! Do you remember Kevin? The crazy guy I met while hiking in Phoenix, carrying his kettlebell up the mountain?!

Kevin was and is an absolute blessing during my trip. He was there during the most difficult moments of my journey and helped me make them as exciting and trouble-free as possible. After my breakup with Petra, he cheered me up in Phoenix. On my birthday, he came all the way to Flagstaff just to celebrate with me. Kevin showed Anne and me how beautiful Las Vegas can be when you're not just a tourist. And for Kevin, it was clear that I had to celebrate Christmas with him and his family in Texas instead of sitting alone on these days. Honestly, I found it quite difficult to accept this invitation. Just flying to a strange family for Christmas, who doesn't even know me?! Somehow it felt before as if I would be a burden to these people and as if I would disturb their Christmas celebration. So I hesitated for a long time whether I should take this step of going to Texas to celebrate Christmas with Kevin and his family. Thank God Kevin doesn't worry about things as much as I do! After my hesitation and fears annoyed him long enough, he simply booked a flight to Dallas for me. That was so incredibly nice that I really had no reason to decline the invitation anymore. Sometimes we need people who push us a little towards our happiness.

And I am so incredibly grateful that Kevin did that in this case. He and his family are just incredibly kind and hospitable to me, incredible! Already at the airport, we were picked up by everyone and warmly welcomed, invited to eat, and I received a tour of the most interesting places in Dallas. Then we went to Kevin's parents' house, which is located in Eureka, a small sweet village. As small as Eureka may be, it is by no means insignificant, as Bonny & Clyde apparently frequented the area.

 In Kevin's parents' beautiful house, I got my own beautiful guest room. I am well taken care of with food around the clock and with an even more important thing: with love and warmth! The whole family is caring, full of love, and interested in who I really am and what moves my life. That is just such a great feeling, especially at Christmas. It may sound super cheesy now, or like some kind of saying from a calendar, but love and appreciation are probably the greatest gift a person can receive, an incredibly great feeling. But that wasn't all on Christmas: In addition, the whole family got me Christmas presents (typical Texan, including a knife, a beautiful necklace, Chucks that I have wanted for ages,...).

And otherwise, Christmas here was super exciting. Of course, we went to church, as people in Texas are very religious. It was a Methodist Christian service, much more casual than the ones we Catholics are used to. In church, people drank coffee, chatted with their neighbors and were warmly welcomed by the pastor. A very friendly atmosphere!

And Christmas dinner in Texas is simply a very special experience. Although I have never eaten so much meat in my life (which actually goes against my morals), the meat here is just too good to refuse. Texans really know barbecue, seasoning the meat, and intense smoky flavor. Furthermore, you can taste the quality of the meat because it comes from their own farms or from neighboring farms. 

after...

Kevin's family house is actually a Texas ranch with many cows, chickens, and endless land. It is really as you imagine it from movies. Land and expansiveness as far as the eye can see. There are cows of various colors, sizes, and formations. The chickens have a lot of space to roam and super professional stables.

The dead cattle skulls are real...

In addition, Kevin's family's house is located directly on a lake, where they can go boating or simply swim a few laps in the summer if they feel like it. Amazing! It was so much fun to be able to accompany Kevin's dad at work, feed all the cows and chickens, and drive the ATV over the endless large properties. The cows are just incredibly cute, especially the babies. Actually, it should hurt your soul to eat such beautiful animals. But at least they seemed to have a happy life with so much space, at least a small consolation and certainly better than meat from factory farming!

However, I have immense respect for people like Kevin's father, who take the physically hard work every day to take care of these animals and keep so much land in order. On the other hand, this country life, far away from all the stress of the city, is probably also totally relaxing and meditative.

In addition to the confirmed rumor of hospitality, the endless expanse of the land, and the many animals in Texas, another one has also been confirmed: guns! I have never seen so many guns in my life as in Texas. Here, there are various rifles in all sizes and formations, insane! This is probably one point where Americans and Europeans will always have difficulties understanding each other's culture. While all those guns scare me and in my eyes increase violence and murders, they are seen by Americans as a huge right to freedom and simply necessary for self-defense. Be that as it may, I am increasingly realizing that people can get along very well with each other even if they don't always agree.

One thing I totally love about Texas, on the other hand, is the vastness and infinite space of the plots of land. Especially at Christmas, when all the eating is happening, sports are, of course, extremely important to me ;). And since Kevin is simply the nicest person ever, he helped me set up a perfect workout on the ranch. And that works really well just using agricultural equipment. Sports with such cool equipment and with a great training partner just makes it even more fun.

I am and will remain infinitely grateful to be able to spend Christmas with this wonderful family. What more do you need at Christmas than great food, nature, sports, and immense warmth?! In addition, to experience a little typical Texas cowboy culture, what more could you want. Not being home for Christmas was a brave step for me... but it absolutely paid off in hindsight. Of course, courage will not always be rewarded as it was in my case. But even if not, courage makes our lives so much more exciting. I probably used to listen to too much Silbermond, who are also of the opinion: 'but as far as I know, the brave ones are always the ones with the good stories!'