It’s started…

 

What one might ask?

Knowing that I live in Switzerland – the snow? Well that started, stopped and in the coming weeks will be a reoccurring affair, or not – depends on the year.

 

The car? That’s always a good thing.

 

The flu season? Already a possibility, but hopefully not until I have my vaccination next week.

 

The aging process? Well in hand

 

The blessings of family? Ah, that’s ongoing and now that I am a grandmother again even better with the years.

 

The wrapping of presents in light of the upcoming yearly Christmas event? Nope, not good at that and it is often a last-minute-affair or bundled into a sack with a piece of tissue paper over it in guise of real wrapping: wrapping presents, as my handwriting, is NOT one of my strengths!

 

Ah, getting close, the Christmas baking marathon.

Just put the first of many batches of brownies in the oven  and from now through the New Year there won’t be many days when at least one lot of cookies gets baked. I take after my aunt, for whom I was named, and my mother. I love baking.

 

It would be a sad year when I can’t bake!

 

 

Christmas in February or…

We have perfected the art of partying all the time using most anything for an excuse.

Of course I could also say that we have perfecting being late, but there were totally valid reasons.

And we are talking about two lots of “Christmas” – the one with my neighbors, both on my side and the upper ones as well as the one with my former housemate and her husband.

Thus it was that in this one week in February, I celebrated “catch-up” Christmas two nights in a row.

Not much of an excuse for being so late with the direct neighbors other than trying to find one night where five adults are all free at the same time isn’t easy what with the grandkids, the selling of a house, the correcting of thesis, life in general.

Then for my former house-mate and her husband it is the fact that they aren’t always in Switzerland; there was my bout of flu, followed by a bad cold; when they did return we couldn’t find an evening where we all three were free (good thing that we weren’t trying to incorporate even more persons, like my two sons) and so it was that both landed in the same week!

And, interestingly enough, both were well enjoyed, lively with discussions and good humor abounding. Not having to compete with all the usual parties led to much more relaxed events and in the case of last night where one of my presents was spring flowers more color.

Long live not doing the usual at the “right” time.

My housemate has also written a blog: http://theexpatwriter.blogspot.ch/2017/02/christmas-now.html

Christmas Day, Christmas gray

Leads one to looking inward, to concentrate on the lights that can be lit, the various decorations and ornaments involving lights; the sharing of other’s lights

Those of you living in sunnier climes don’t perhaps enjoy the lights to the same degree that those of us who look outside and see gray and rain, yet more rain. However, I am sure that everyone in his or her own way has the odd gray day.  Think back to those and focus on what made the gray go away: usually there is some sort of light involved.

They remind us of the sun, of better weather so we indulge ourselves with new ones every year and on those days, such as mine today, when the outside is blanketed in many shades of gray, we even light them all to celebrate the lights that lead the way, the lights that guide us in the darkness, the lights that lift our spirits.

But there are other kinds of gray,  the gray of the spirit : we must never forget, that to others we can be the light; we can lift the darkness of loneliness, we have the capacity to shed the light of human warmth and love.

On this Christmas Day look around, shed some light – you’d be amazed at how strong the rays can be that return to you.

Old tea light container

New "Swedish chimes" from D-L & R

Champagne at friends

Christmas and I should be waxing poetic…

Somehow this year it just isn’t happening.

I have wonderful memories of childhood Christmases: we celebrated on Christmas Eve so that a maiden aunt could be with us (a surgical nurse, unmarried and without children, she always volunteered for the holidays so that others could be home with their families). It was a small meal of frozen fruit salad and toasted cheese buns (now that does neither justice as they were both about the most scrumptious dishes possible!) followed by us piling into the car to go look at the decorated houses – our pockets stuffed full of cookies (the one night that our mother didn’t limit us – so, yes, most of us got sick on cookies at some point during our childhood, but we never learned the lesson and usually simply repeated it the following year).

My first year in Europe a bunch of us spent Christmas in Salzburg, Austria and my memories of the kindness of the hotel keeper (wee present of cookies and chocolates on our beds) as well as the Gregorian chanting in the cathedral are still ever-present in my mind.

I returned to Europe, married and had a family: Christmas Eve was still the important event as my husband had also celebrated then. Although we were often with either my in-laws or my own family for the holidays, we did have the odd one here and always followed our own family traditions (I did try my childhood food on them, it didn’t go over that big, but then neither did the German traditions) so we created our own. To this day, Christmas celebrations aren’t unless there is shrimp cocktail and smoked salmon: followed by (some things remain the same) as many cookies as one can – or is willing – to eat.

The past two years we have celebrated a week in advance. This has lots of merit in that it is less stressful and one is thereafter free to participate – or not – in any other activities or invitations: I even invited my neighbors down for a meal as simply felt like it and had the leisure to organize.

Still, without young children, it just doesn’t seem the same. I have been more attracted to a new Christmas song written by Air Bear Music/Linda’s Boys Music/(Warner-Tamerlane Pub Corp.) and sung by several musicians: “Grown-up Christmas List”.  From Wikipedia: "Grown-Up Christmas List" (sometimes titled "My Grown-Up Christmas List") is a Christmas song composed by David Foster (music) and Linda Thompson-Jenner (lyrics),^[1] and originally recorded by Foster (with singer Natalie Cole on vocals) for his 1990 non-holiday album River of Love. Though it was also released as a single, the song was not a hit upon its first appearance. In 1992, however, Amy Grant recorded a version for her second holiday album, Home for Christmas. Grant's version featured altered lyrics and an additional verse that Grant penned herself. Her record label at the time, A&M Records, promoted the song as the second single from the album, and it received substantially more radio airplay than the original version by Foster.

I love the chorus: “No more lives torn apart; that wars would never start and time would heal all hearts. Everyone would have a friend and right would always win and love would never end.”

I dedicate this to all my family and friends – those who stand by when times are rough, who celebrate with me when things go well: may the love never end!

My latest Christmas tree ornament: an oak leaf from Yosemite National Park given to me by my brother this fall.

Bubble, bubble, no toil or trouble or…

Bouncing in the bubbles and other Christmas Frolics.

Last year due to family spreading in all directions, we celebrated early – and loved it so much that we decided to do the same this year.

Our shadows in front of the main part of the Vitam'Parc pool

 

An afternoon spent out at Vitam’ Parc swimming and enjoying the various hammans, saunas and bubbly water spouts, jets, streams followed by our favorite “fast” food at older son’s apartment: home-made foie gras – nummy, nummy, a big thanks to A; smoked salmon (only Alaskan will do), and shrimp cocktail (always have to have extra as the boys love this stuff). We totally forgot any vegetables except the Iceberg lettuce under the shrimp cocktail. Christmas cookies and champagne rounded out the meal before opening a plethora of presents. Much thought went into them and we were all touched.

May everyone’s Christmas be as warm and successful!

Dark days, Light events

In the dark days of late November, beginning of December until the wonderful day of Dec.22 when the days start getting longer again, some of us notice more than others the blackness of the elements.  This is the time of year when every little light, every little glow takes on an extra warmth, a meaning of life and light to chase away the shadows.

We meet friends more, go out and about to see the pre-Christmas lights – and it certainly doesn’t matter what one's religion, or lack thereof, is – we revel in a fireplace, a string of fairy lights, anything and everything that helps lighten the gloom.

There are the Christmases to plan (yes, I said Christmases – when one has friends and family far and near, one tends to multiply, in accordance with the others plans, those celebrations.

This morning, the household had its Christmas, breakfast on a Sunday morning being about the only time where the three of us could actually coordinate our separate lives and calendars.

Being the savvy women that we are, both housemate D-L and I, delegated the making of Christmas breakfast to her love, Rick.  He did us proud, bacon and eggs (seasoned mind you), table prettily set – and to both of our surprise the bonus of champagne, colored with cranberry juice for the color, no less!

The eggs cooled as pictures were taken, which in no way diminished our pleasure in eating them. In fact it was all so extraordinary that it wasn’t until a couple hours later when I was questioning the fact that the champagne had really gone to my head, that I realized that I hadn’t had my coffee!

Here’s to the warmth of friendship: a light on a gray day.