As I've said before, one of our favorite things about having guests is the excuse to go do touristy stuff with them. Maddie was perfectly content to just hang out and play with the kids or talk to me, but also willing to go see whatever we suggested. In short, she was the perfect houseguest! :) The Tuesday after Christmas we decided to take her to see "the world's largest nativity scene" and invited our friends, Tanya, Max and Jasper along.
I have been to this display three times now, and every time I see some new detail I didn't catch before. The figures are all hand carved wood, and the backdrop was designed to look just like the area around Bethlehem at the time of Christ. I think it is my love of miniatures in general, that draws me in. The Wise Men and their entourage are very impressive, and they have servants setting out the boxes of treasure, waiting to present them to the newborn King. The tiny pearl necklaces and jewelry are so intricate and detailed. I could stare at them the whole time. But the kids are always pulling me to come look at something else! There is a continuous running dialogue that plays in the background but how the nativity scene was built, what it is constructed of, how many years it took and so forth. If you kindly ask the cashier, she will play it in your mother tongue as well. So even though most of us speak German, we still had her play it in English in case we missed anything. There is something just so comforting about hearing something that you know for sure you completely understand when you are in a foreign country. Yes, I do love it here, and feel at home here, but still, I have moments every day where I am wondering if they really said what I thought they said.
Anyway, the other visitor friendly feature is the step and hand rail they have built all along the walls where the nativity scene is displayed. This allows the children to actually see what the adults are all gawking at, and the hand rail ensures they have something to hold on to in case they start to fall off the step.
There is also a nice bench to sit on and wait for the rest of your party to finish gazing at the display. Of course, we couldn't leave without adding to our postcard collection. I talked Sophie into choosing the giant fold out card that has a picture of the entire nativity scene. It is too cute to miss some of it.
Afterward we walked a couple of blocks to the lebkuchen museum.
Although, it isn't actually lebkuchen that they make there, it is their own version of cookie called a Schafblok, or something like that, but they are delicious. Extra bonus, the museum is free, not too big, and you get a free sample at the end.:) The museum is in what was originally the living quarters of the family that ran the bakery. There are tin toys, old cameras, several old photographs, and all the old machinery on display. But the kids loved all the wooden cookie molds the best. They were tons of them, each hand carved with beautiful pictures and sayings, all backwards of course, so they would be right side up on the cookies. True pieces of art. I would love to have a set, framed, to hang in my kitchen. Some of them seemed like an odd choice for a cookie, there was a man dragging a dead turkey by the leg on one, but the kids had fun pointing out all the little details to each other.
What I was most thankful for, though, was that the woman manning the store let the kids use the employee bathroom. Einsiedeln is a good 40 minute drive away, and by the time we got to the museum, they all needed a potty break. Perhaps it helped that they are all so adorable, I don't know. But I was just glad I didn't have to take any of them outside to find a tree!
After we had watched the little movie about the boy who wants to become a chocolatier, instead of a baker, in the upstairs part of the museum, we came back downstairs to choose our postcards and goodies. They sell two different kinds of cookie, and since they both looked so delicious, I bought a small bag of each. Good thing, because the kids were definitely ready for their afternoon snack. They munched on them as we walked up the slight incline to the edge of town where the famous monastery is.
It is an actual working monastery, and the monks live in a large dormitory connected to the side of the church. You can walk the grounds, visit the horses, and there is even a small playground for the visiting children. Since everything was covered with snow, though, we just stuck to the inside of the church. The ceilings are painted in very bright, cheerful colors, and the floors have these gorgeous mosaics. Sarah was fascinated by the pews with built in knee rests for when you pray during church. And of course, the dead bodies enshrined along the sides of the building are always a huge hit. My children love the macabre, what does that say about me as their mother?
By now it was getting kind of late, so we slowly headed back to the car. Good thing I had a few cookies left to ensure everyone had enough energy to make it. Nicholas gets a huge kick out of Tanya's little boy, Jasper. He loves to play silly games with him, generally resulting in Jasper getting totally riled up and a bit wild. I was trying to get Nick to leave him alone, but they were both laughing so much it didn't do much good. And then Jasper, who can talk like a 5 year old even though he is only 2 1/2, said the funniest thing which is now part of our families vocabulary. There were piles of snow everywhere, and he decided to climb up one. But, you know, he's 2 1/2 with typical short, chubby toddler legs, so this tiny mound of snow was actually pretty hard for him to scale. He persevered, though, and as he came down the other side he held out his arms and said "Victory!" So, now, anytime any of us does anything remotely difficult, we say "victory!" in imitation of Jasper.
It was a fun outing made better by good friends. Thanks for joining us, guys!
OK, I'm horribly late catching up on my blog reading but it was fun reliving this fun day with your family and remembering Jasper's "victory". Good times!