We’re getting festive
here with some special peeps and today we get
Christmassy with Catherine Kullmann
Hello Catherine
Please
tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.
Hi Pauline and thanks
for inviting me along. I am all three. I have been an avid reader all my life
and always enjoyed writing, both at school and later in my career. I started
writing fiction about seven years ago and now have published two novels set in
the extended Regency Era—the Murmur of Masks and Perception & Illusion,
both which have received a Chill with a Book Award. I love the research that
goes with writing historical fiction and blog about historical facts and trivia
relating to the Regency in My Scrap Album on
What is
your favourite Christmas memory?
I can’t really pick
one out. To me, Christmas is first and foremost the commemoration of Christ’s
birth marked by a combination of family togetherness, sacred music and
contemplation, excitement and anticipation and family traditions, small and
large, Ours are a mix of Irish and German—we have a German Christmas Eve with
German carols during present giving followed by a special dinner and an Irish
Christmas Day, where Mass is followed by Christmas Dinner.
What is
your favourite Christmas food?
It has to be the
traditional Christmas Dinner that I have eaten every year of my life, first
prepared by my mother and later by me according to her recipes. Turkey with
herbed bread stuffing, boiled ham, bread sauce, roast potatoes, braised
chicory, carrots and peas. We eat it twice, once on Christmas Day when the
turkey is hot and again on St Stephen’s Day (26 December) when the turkey is
cold. And every year, as my mother before me, I sigh on that second day and say
‘It always tastes better on Stephen’s Day’. I think it is because this marks
the end of my Christmas responsibilities. Now, of course, with an adult family,
everyone pitches in but in the past, when I was working fulltime and had a
younger family, Christmas was heavy enough going.
What is
your favourite Christmas song?
Adeste Fideles (O
Come All Ye Faithful) sung in Latin as it was in my childhood. I love the way
the congregation will instinctively build a crescendo on the threefold
repetition of ‘Venite adoremus’ (O come, let us adore him) at the end of each
verse, starting almost at a whisper and only going full throttle on ‘Dominum’
(Christ the Lord).
What is
your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why
I have chosen this
photo of last year’s Christmas Pudding with a dish of brandy sauce—again, a
traditional part of our Irish Christmas. This recipe comes from my mother’s
family so it links me with my sister, cousins and their families as well. This
is a link to a blog I wrote about it last year that includes the recipe. https://catherinekullmann.weebly.com/my-scrap-album/christmas-or-plum-pudding
You can also find
Catherine at all of these…
Thank you.
Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Susi Holliday
1 comment:
Thank you for hosting me, Pauline. I'm starting to feel really christmassy now. The tree is bought but not put up, presents are bought but not all wrapped, the menus finalised and I plan to start the grocery shopping today. The turkey is ordered and we'll collect it from our local butcher on Christmas Eve. There will be a couple of hours of very organised chaos as we do all the prepping and then we'll relax into Christmas.
Wishing you and all your readers a very happy Christmas.
Catherine
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