3 Days 'till Christmas...

...really? Wow. I just got the stuffers for Sofia's Advent Calendar (it gets more and more fun to find little things to put into the little boxes with each year she grows up) and now there are only 3 left! I am pleased to say, that I've completed my Christmas shopping today and am ready to wrap everything. All the overseas packages have been shipped and so have the ones for our closer relatives (I hope the Jam and Chutney made it to Connecticut in one piece, Betty?), the tree has been chopped down and decorated and the Christmas cards have been written and finally sent out. Phew!
I vividly remember Sofia decorating our tree last year. We were potty training her at that time, and have a picture of her sitting on her potty in front of the tree, decorating it! This year she was equally involved if not more. She didn't want me to see that she was starting to decorate, even though I told her to wait, because we hadn't put up the lights yet. This is what she did to me, so that I couldn't "see" what she was up to:



She actually taped the thing onto my forehead!
I literally had to fight to be able to put a couple of ornaments (or ordaments, as she calls it). She has become quite the decorator, she loves helping me and I let her to some extent. She's also become quite skilled in her cutting and wrapping and has helped me with all our presents going to Switzerland. It's so much fun getting her involved. Like for example, my mommy group had another cookie decorating extravaganza and all of the kids were super involved in decorating this year. What a difference from last year, where it was rather chaotic! Here are some pictures of that event:




Her "blinged-out" gingerbread man!


I love our baking tradition and our dear friend Karen, even though she was three days away from giving birth, hosted it again this year and provided us with a mountain of already baked cookies that were screaming for some frosting and sugar sprinkles! She even made us dinner that night! Seriously woman, you were on such a baby high that night! How else could you pull something like that off, hugely pregnant! You rock and we love, love, love you!!

Santa Claus also came to Sofia's Preschool and she was utterly surprised by that event. I hadn't told her in advance and so when he showed up, she was so excited! She was the first to go up and tell him what she wanted from him for Christmas and I bet you, the poor guy had no idea what she was talking about, haha. She told him she wanted a "moving cat". This is what she meant by that.
It's creepy. It moves, and purrs, and miaows, and blinks at you...I, er Santa, got it for her and now I pray she won't have nightmares because of that! Anyway, she mentioned it so much that I felt I had better got her one! We'll see how she'll do with it, I guess? Haha.

Aaanyway, so Christmas is coming and there is no denying it anymore. I'm going to miss my family back home, as always especially this time a year, but we'll probably do a web chat with my mom on Christmas day, which is always nice.

And of course, the year is coming to an end and I think both Joe and I are glad this time. We've had a rough year, financially and emotionally. He got laid off from Ebay in July and I shortly after miscarried at 6.5 weeks. Luckily, he found another job very quickly. As for me, I'm still emotionally suffering a little over that lost pregnancy, especially since we've been trying for about 1.5 years now. It's not something I've been talking about with everyone, and I thought that maybe writing it down would be some sort of therapy for me. Thank you for listening.

So, as this year comes to an end, we will hug and kiss our daughter just a little bit more, because we're reminded once again that she truly IS a gift to us!

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Samichlaus 101

We went to this year's Samichlaus again and it was a blast, mostly because Sofia is so much more into it this year, she even sat on Santa's lap with no fear whatsoever! They brought in "snow" so that the kids could play, mostly snowball fights.




This essay that was published in our Peninsula Swiss Club Newsletter by a man named Roger Bonner and it captures our "Saint Nicholas" tradition so well, I just had to put it in here to share. Enjoy:

Fröhliche Buon Bellas Noël!
By Roger Bonner

Christmas in Switzerland must be a paradise for children because there are so many different ways of celebrating this festival. In Catholic areas the season begins on 6th December, St. Nicholas Day. Now Samichlaus, San Nicolao or Père Noël, as he is variously known throughout the country, is not the obese, materialistic hohohooooing Santa Claus of North America who can barely make it down the chimney, but a lean, bearded bishop-like figure who comes round with a donkey and a fearful companion dressed in a dark cloak and hood called Schmutzli, also known as Knecht Ruprecht in Germany.“Have you been good boys and girls?” is the grim question and, if not, Schmutzli could in the past haul them off in a huge sack or even dispense corporeal punishment with his bundle of twigs. Usually the kiddies have tried hard to behave in the past few days and will receive cookies, tangerines, nuts, and, perhaps, even a chocolate cell phone.

Very important is the Adventkranz, a decorated evergreen wreath with four candles that families place on the dining room table. The first candle is lit on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The ceremony is sometimes accompanied with the singing of carols, and more eating of sweets - to be repeated on three more Sundays! Little children love Advent calendars, glittery posters traditionally depicting the Nativity, with angels and shepherds in the background. There are 24 tiny doors concealing Christmas pictures that they can open each December day, the last and largest being on Christmas Eve. And again each time they are rewarded with sweets.


During the season the land is overcome with a veritable baking mania. Housewives (and increasingly househusbands) break into a cookie fever to produce tons and tons of Weihnachtsguetzli with such lilting names as Brunsli, Mailänderli, Zimtsternli and Anisbrötli. They give them to friends and relatives who in turn present them with their own confections. The left-over glut of sweets may last well into February and be secretly fed to pigeons, a reason why so many of them have difficulty becoming airborne in the New Year. All of these elaborate preparations culminate in Christmas Eve.

The tree, not yet the giant, overloaded variety of North America, is decorated and lit with real candles and even sparklers, which keeps the firefighters in the country very tense. Children are not allowed to see what’s going on behind closed doors until their parents reveal the splendour and gifts to them. In many parts of Switzerland it is Christkindli, the Christ Child, and not Santa Claus, who brings the gifts, which are opened on Christmas Eve. The meal on Christmas Eve is usually kept simple: salmon on toast, cold cuts and pâtés are favourites. On Christmas day you hardly ever see a turkey or goose with all the trimmings. A Schüfeli is the fare, a rolled ham. In many households eating a cheese fondue or fondue bourguignonne, in which pieces of meat are dipped in hot oil or broth, have become increasingly popular, and then guess what’s for desert? Cookies!

French-speaking Switzerland, except for Fribourg, is predominantly Protestant and therefore Christmas is lower key. December 6 is hardly noticed. Père Noël climbs through the window on Christmas Eve to leave presents for good little boys and girls (if this were a condition for grown-ups no one would ever get anything!). In some families, he makes a personal appearance to hand out the gifts, but first the kids have to sing and dance and recite poems. As a reminder to be good throughout the following year, Father Christmas might conspicuously leave a bundle of twigs within easy reach.

Across the St. Gotthard and San Bernardino Passes lies the beautiful canton of Ticino. Here the spirit of Italy prevails. Although most families put up a Christmas tree, the Nativity, or presepio, is greatly cherished. Little stables made of twigs or wood are put under the tree. Family members go out to gather moss for lining the
manger. Then they place figurines of the Madonna, Giuseppe and angels, along with sheep, mules and oxen, in the presepio. The Gesú Bambino, the Baby Jesus, is lovingly added at midnight of Christmas Eve. The children in Ticino receive their presents on Christmas Day, and many believe it is the Gesú Bambino who has left them.
Some may even put out a bowl of milk for him before going to bed on Christmas Eve as an incentive to bring plenty, something which the cats love. The Ticinese enjoy their traditional meal of polenta with brazatto, a braised beef dish, or risotto on the afternoon of Christmas Day.

For sheer beauty and variety of landscape nothing beats the canton of Graubünden, where Romansch, an ancient Latin tongue, is mainly spoken. The mountains above the small town of Maienfeld are the home of Heidi, the classic tale which has delighted children the world over for more than a hundred years. As in the Ticino, most of the families of Graubünden decorate their homes with both a Christmas tree and a nativity scene called a purseppen. However, Christmas traditions can vary from place to place. In Catholic towns, St. Nicholas comes dressed as a bishop. In Protestant towns he is called Sontgaclau and he assumes the terrifying role of Schmutzli elsewhere. Children often receive their presents from Christkindli on Christmas Day. For the Christmas meal, each family prepares its own traditional menu, featuring ham or Bündnerfleish – air-dried beef cut in paper-thin slices.

However the customs may vary in Switzerland, a good Christmas spirit and joy of life is common to them all. And where else in the world can I you wish a Merry Christmas in four different languages?

Fröhliche Weihnachten, Joyeux Noël, Buon Natale, Bellas Festas!