Spinners of the World- December 17th

Welcome to  day 17 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. 
We're counting down the darkest days by  exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! 
Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you!

.Todays spinner is Filigarne, she's French but was born and grew up in Germany, and now lives in the Auvergne region in the center of France near Clermont-Ferrand.

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I love all kinds of fibers (except cotton, too hard to spin). I spin mainly for knitting.

​I celebrate Noël (Christmas) on 24th and 25th December. We spend the 24th with good friends, and the 25th with family.
On the 25th, we have lunch together which may last until the late afternoon. There are lots of good things to eat, good wine, champaign...  
In France, Christmas equals eating... there are too many things to eat to have just one favourite: bûche de Noël (Christmas cake), coquilles St Jacques (scallops), smoked salmon, vin chaud (hot spiced wine), papillotes ( Christmas sweeties)
Since I'm not sure that my kitchen English is good enough to make sure you get what you should, I better play it safe with an easy recipe for hot spicy wine:
Ingredients :
- 1 bottle of fruity red wine (no Bordeaux!)
- 1 star of star anise
- 1 untreated orange (whole peel and a quarter of the fruit cut into small cubes )
 80 g of sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 10 grains of pepper
- ½ teaspoon of ginger powder
2 steps for preparation :
1. Brew the star anise in the wine at 80°C for 9 minutes.
2. Add all the other ingredients and heat to 90°. Keep at temperature for 20 minutes (don't boil! ) Let cool down to drinking temperature and enjoy!

My most ambitious crafting gift was a fully furnished doll house for my daughter when she was 4. This year over the holidays I'll be spinning my "Adventskalender" , a German tradition where you have a calendar with 24 surprises for the 24 days between 1st and 24th December. 24 people exchange 24 small portions of fiber and a sweetie for each day and a small Christmas gift for 25th December. My yarn's for a shawl. And I have a lot to destash - for instance the Hilltop Cloud TdF fiber 2016...

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Thanks Filigarne. Tomorrow there will be another spinner, from another part of the world.