We had a very relaxed Swiss Christmas weekend. Swiss Christmas is our family Christmas – when we have fondue and give each other gifts. It’s sort of nice to have it out of the way, shopping done, kids content. And now we have one last week of school before we fly to the US.
Claire had a string ensemble concert tonight and she did a lovely job and I was proud. I don’t have a photo or a video because I was enjoying the music.
While I was busy listening to the performance these parents were busy being more than a bit distracting.
Can we please put our phones away and just sit and be polite and be in the moment?
We went back to the Sihlsprung for a really pleasant walk on Sunday. It was only a little bit chilly. The sun shone into the woods at a sharp angle. Brian made good hearty sandwiches for lunch (as he usually does). And there was so much beautiful green moss.
I took lots of photos and cleared my mind.
Ok we’re friends with baking again. Bea and I made crullers on Saturday morning. The nice thing is that they are like doughnuts but they are made with an eggy dough that isn’t yeasted and so you don’t have to wait for it tor rise. Bea was the fry master and she did a great job. The recipe was from the Zingerman’s Bakehouse book. Yum – we will be making these again!
All the trinkets and baubles and knickknacks are out and the Christmas music is playing. And that makes me happy.
We switched things up this year and put Bea’s Lego train under the tree. It’s a very Lego Christmas.
Here’s the part that makes Brian happy – his beer advent calendar.
I hope you too are surrounded by the little things that make you smile.
I had a baking fail today. I followed the instructions but something went wrong. There’s nothing to be done but to get a fork and try to take care of the evidence as soon as possible. I even enlisted the girls to try to clean up the gooey-chocolate-supposed-to-be-brownies-mess.
This is a recipe from a book that I was so excited about. It’s called Happiness is Baking by Maida Heatter and I have to say, every recipe I’ve tried has been a disappointment.
And then I made a good ol’ reliable batch of chocolate chip cookies. And they turned out perfectly!
We went to two Christmas markets this weekend. We filled up on hot cheese and hot gluewein. A great way to welcome December!
Today my heart is in the USA.
We’ve been doing some fun festive things lately. We decorated our Christmas tree. We went ice skating and then today we went to the Onion Festival in Bern.
We trekked up to the Dolder sport area on a hill above Zurich for skating. I wanted to see their big rink with it’s pretty Christmas tree.
Bern is a little over an hour away from our home by train. It’s such a beautiful city and today it was filled with onions and confetti. I’ll never understand what confetti has to do with their onion traditions but who cares because the girls loved it.
Who knew throwing fistfuls of confetti at your family and strangers was so fun. The streets get a thick layer of colorful confetti.
And then there is a parade – I love a Swiss parade.
The confetti is everywhere – down our shirts and stuck in our hair and backpacks and shoes. I’m sure I’ll be vacuuming up bits here and there for a long time. But I don’t mind. Confetti makes us all happy!
Laowai 