Musings of Amy

One of my absolute favorite things to do during Christmas time is bake special treats for our friends and neighbors.  Of course, we get to eat some as well.  I collect recipes constantly and store them in a special plastic file.  Then, sometime in November, I go through them all and pick out the ones I feel like making for that year.  There are a few standards that I make almost every year, but I like to choose mostly different things so that it doesn’t get boring.  For me, or the recipients.

One of the treats the children have requested I make every year are buckeyes. They are pretty easy and relatively quick to make, but boy are they delicious.  I actually prefer them now to Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.  Which is why I only make them once a year. 🙂

I also made Mounds bars this year.  Almond Joys were too labor intensive for me, I just didn’t have the time.  But I bought the coconut way back in the summer while we were in the States, and kept it in the freezer all this time, with the express purpose of making these this year.  They are so good!  I remember the first time I made them, I got so fed up dipping the individual pieces in the melted chocolate.  Finally I just left them in the pan and poured the chocolate on top.  They were good, but having the chocolate coating all the way around is better.

I totally overestimated how much chocolate to melt, so I dipped the marzipan balls we bought in Germany into it, as well.  The kids gave this the thumbs up!

I tried this recipe for the first time about 9 years ago.  It was a complete flop. So I set it aside and every time I saw the recipe card, I would remember the horror of those mints that refused to set up, and then have an inner debate about throwing the card away or not.  But the taste was so good, even though the texture was wrong, so I would stick it back in the collection for another time.  This year, after a bit of investigation on the internet, I decided to try again.  They worked perfectly!  They still don’t taste exactly like the mints you get at all weddings I have ever attended in the States, but they were close.  And I think its worth some more experimentation to achieve that perfect clone.  Noah LOVED these, as well, and hopes they become a part of the permanent rotation.

I made lots of other treats as well, but these are the ones I could make ahead of time, because sitting around for a bit actually improves their flavor, rather than detracting from it.  Making Christmas treats for loved ones, while listening to beautiful Christmas music, what a great tradition!

Another favorite tradition that I inherited from my mom, is always having a Christmas puzzle set up somewhere in the house to be worked on whenever anyone feels like it.  Some of my most vivid and treasured memories of Christmas time are coming home from school and finding my mom sitting at my dad’s drafting table they had set up in the living room, working on “the puzzle”.  It was a 1000 piece-r and I remember loving to work on the lady in the purple dress who was decorating the gigantic Christmas tree.  There was also a scene of Santa Claus climbing down into a chimney top.  After several years, we got to where we could put the puzzle together in just a couple of days, we knew it so well.  So then my brother, I think, gave her a new one.  And then the collecting of awesome Christmas puzzles began.  The only requirements were that they had to be 1000 piece-rs.

So guess what we do at our house? This is one of 3 Christmas puzzles I have collected so far. The fun thing is that it was truly a family affair.  Sophie worked on certain sections of the puzzle all by herself, Noah worked on another section, and he, Sarah and Alexandra helped us search for certain pieces.  Noah is really, really good at picking out just the right piece we need from the whole box of jumbled up pieces.

And you know what I discovered this year?  When all the preparations and festivities of Christmas are beginning to feel like nothing more than a bunch of stressful obligations, sitting down for a few minutes to work on a puzzle is the best therapy there is.  It relaxed me, gave my mind a distraction from the lists of things to do constantly swarming around inside my head, and forced me to slow down just a bit and just enjoy the moment, the season, with my family.  The way its meant to be enjoyed.  Thank you, Mom, for this awesome tradition.

We always get the kids fun Advent calendars, filled with little toys and treats to help the long wait until Christmas be a bit more bearable.  But this is the calendar they talk about the most. Every day the kids take turns moving Mary and Joseph one small step closer to Bethlehem. There is constant counting of how many days are left, how far they’ve already come, etc.  And then, finally, on Christmas eve, they set up the whole scene in the manager.  There are wise men, shepherds, angels, a giant star, and of course, baby Jesus in a manger.  I bought it from www.funfelt.com at a home party back when we lived in the States and only had one teeny tiny baby.  Excellent investment.

In looking back over past blog entries, some things I thought were traditions, faded over time.  And that’s okay.  But these are the traditions that return every year.  The things that make it feel like Christmas in our home.  Without them, something would just feel “off”.  I hope they bring my children as many happy memories in later years as they do to me now.

Monday, December 12, the younger kids and I drove into downtown Zurich for a much anticipated ride on the Maerlitram. (Literal translation, fairy tale street car)  My friend, Tanya, was kind enough to go several days in advance and buy all our tickets at once, so all the kids could ride together.  The girl selling the tickets told her she was very lucky to find 17 seats available on one time slot.  Indeed!

I overestimated how long it would take to drive into the city, and we were also able to find a parking spot relatively painlessly, so we had plenty of time before our scheduled ride.  This was good, since everyone decided they all needed to go potty again, even though they went just before we left the house.  Noah didn’t like having to be in with us girls, but it was better than going to the boys’ completely alone.

We walked over to the tram stop and met a few of our friends. 🙂That bundle of cuteness is Hans, a family favorite.  It’s always a good day at church if we have a clear view of Hans and his antics. haha   There were also gorgeous Christmas lights to admire.  These were my favorite. The light would start at the top, and swirl around to the bottom before going dark for a second and then starting over.  So it looked like melting icicles in the tree!

This is the angel who sells you your tickets.Why an angel, you ask?  Well, you see, Santa Claus doesn’t come to Switzerland.  I mean, he comes to some houses, like ours, because we are American.  But the Swiss kids get their presents brought to them by the Christkind.  Translated it means Christ child, but it’s actually an angel, a GIRL angel specifically, who brings the presents on Christmas Eve.

We had arrived really early, so things got a little crazy while we waited.Sarah picked up Noah and swung him around for a while.  Then Sarah and Sophie tried to pick each other up, with varying degrees of success.

Then they started a conga line. Music self-made, naturally.

They even had a few other kids join in, but before things got really crazy, the tram showed up!Isn’t it just magical looking?  It’s not every day that Samichlaus drives a tram around the city.  And I love the old fashioned paintings along the sides. sigh  It’s just perfect.

The kids all stood in line, waiting to hand Samichlaus their tickets.  Alexandra was so excited because she finally got to ride this year.  You have to be 4 to ride, and she was very sad when she had to stay behind with me last year.

During the ride, the angels tell the kids a Christmas story and pass out cookies. The whole ride lasts about 20 minutes, going through the heart of downtown Zurich.  But too soon for some, the whole thing is over, and the tram pulls up to let the kids off. As each child exits, the angels give them a dab of angel dust on their nose and cookie. A very sweet ending to a fun tradition.

Sadly, this was Sarah’s last year, since children over 10 aren’t allowed to ride the tram. 🙁  But I whispered a little secret in her ear as we walked away.  There will still be something special for her to do next year.  A special treat just for the kids who can’t ride the tram.  She was thrilled.)

We had a great time decorating our traditional gingerbread houses.  Some of my friends used the kits from IKEA, and really liked them.  I was very tempted to pick up a couple myself.  Especially since I felt like I was constantly struggling to just keep my head above water for this entire month.   But I love the smell of the gingerbread baking, my kids love eating the gingerbread, and since I made up my own pattern for cute, tiny little houses, I only needed one batch of gingerbread anyway.  So I went ahead and baked them myself.

I am also pleased to report that, thanks to the meringue powder my mother imported for me last year, the frosting actually kept the houses together the first time!  I didn’t need to swear, stamp my feet, rebuild the houses six times each, or have the kids carefully hold them together for 20 minutes before they could even begin decorating them.  They have never forgiven me for the year I hot glued them together.  It worked fantastic, and I thought I was so brilliant, but I seriously underestimated how much the kids loved eating the actual house.  So no more hot glue awesomeness for me. 🙂

We don’t go for architectural works of art around here.  I have seen some amazing gingerbread houses in my lifetime.  My friends and their kids make some gorgeous ones.   I always think it would be so fun to make a really fancy one sometime.  But we either lack the skills or the right equipment to make it happen.   I cut out pieces to make chimneys and doors, but forgot to cut out doorways on the houses. Oops!  And it was okay that one of the chimneys was damaged by a fire, not everyone chose that option.

  My frosting was super stiff , which was why it held the hosues together so well. But for some reason, on Alexandra’s house it was almost too dry.  Her house collapsed 3 times!  No one else’s though.  I am not sure what I did wrong, but every time it crashed she would just patiently begin again.  The final crash completely destroyed the garden she had built, and she got sad about that.  To cheer her up, we told her we could pretend all the frosting chunks were snow.  She liked that idea very much.

Here are all the cute houses on display, all finished, and ready to be snacked on.

Some of them stayed beautiful and pristine until the end (Nick’s).  Some of them were candy-less in about 2 days. 😉  The kids were clever though.  Several of them popped candy through the windows, so when the roof was eaten, they had another stash of candy waiting to be consumed!

On December 16th, Chris and I celebrated our “golden” anniversary.  16 years of marriage on the 16th.  Since a big trip wasn’t in the budget, not even a small trip, Chris decided to do something different to mark this important milestone. We didn’t just celebrate our anniversary “day”, we celebrated anniversary month!  It started with him buying me a bouquet of beautiful flowers on the 1st.  I didn’t get a photo of them right away, so they aren’t at their best, but seriously, they were gorgeous. We wished each other “happy anniversary month” every chance we got.  And we tried especially hard to be kind, patient and loving towards one another.  It was a great anniversary.  The shrimp risotto, night on the town shopping, and awesome movie on the actual day weren’t bad either. 😉

I was at the store a few weeks before Christmas, waiting in line to pay, and started glancing through the plastic bins of miscellaneous stuff they have for sale there.  That’s when I spied these gorgeous babies and snapped up every one they had. I was super excited about these for several reasons. 1) Candy canes aren’t actually widely available here.  You can find them in a few specialty shops, naturally at overinflated prices, but it’s definitely not something the Swiss associate with Christmas, at all.  2) They are big.  I have been noticing for the past few years, that the cute little decorations I started collecting when we lived in our tiny basement apartment just don’t work well in our large attic apartment.  They end up looking like clutter, rather than decor.  So these were a great size.  3) They were the right color!  I am a very, very, very traditional girl when it comes to Christmas colors.  No pink, no turquoise, no mint green, no pewter; just red, green and gold, thankyouverymuch.  There were some pink ones in the bin as well, but I left them there for the avant garde Christmas decorators.   4) They beefed up my homemade ornaments from a couple years ago.  Now, with the candy canes in between them, I can space it out along the whole curtain rod area in the living room, and it looks great and very festive.  Before, the balls alone were looking more like an afterthought, than a well designed display. 5) They were glittery.  enough said.

This next picture isn’t allowed to have much commentary.  If you want to know the deeper meaning you will have to ask me in person.  I can’t leave a cyber trail, or so I am told. 🙂

Samichlaus usually visits us in the afternoon/evening of this day, so the kids weren’t expecting anything special in the morning.  They leave out their sacks that day, and he comes and takes them away, and brings them back filled later on.  So, imagine their surprise when they opened the door to put on their shoes for school to find this!Our awesome neighbor, Maya B sewed them, 7 in all, for us.  They were filled with peanuts and chocolates, and were such a fun treat.  Notice the all brown one?  She told me later, she figured we needed one Schmuetzli to go with all our Samichlauses. We gave that one to Chris. 🙂

And of course, these will now become a permanent addition to our Christmas decor. They ate these treats for breakfast, and when they came back in the afternoon, there were more treats from Samichlaus waiting for them.  Grittibaenz for dinner is part of the tradition of this day for us.  Fortunately, the children are always so good, there was no need to be afraid of only getting switches from Schmuetzli! 🙂

This year, Sarah’s class invited any parents who wanted, to join them in making Advent wreaths at school. The morning after Thanksgiving all the kids all went out to the neighboring farm, and collected pine boughs.  Then we met them back at the school and transformed them into beautiful wreaths.  I had never done it before.  Ever.  In years past, we have almost always received a wreath as a gift, or I just bought one already done.  So I definitely had a lot to learn, and was so glad there were so many experienced wreath makers in attendance.

First of all, I wasn’t sure what type of base to buy, so I bought two!  One was made out of florist foam, with a plastic flat bottom, and one was a straw wreath already covered with small pine branches.  We ended up using the florist foam one. 🙂  We were just about to start jamming in the little branches, when my friend, Bettina, stopped me.  “You need to soak that in water for at least 10 minutes first.  Otherwise you’ll have nothing but problems later.”  Good to know!  So we went and put it in the sink to soak, while we continued to cut the huge pine boughs into smaller pieces we could actually work with.

The florist foam was good because rather than having to wrap the whole wreath with tons of wire to hold on the individual pieces of pine, we just jabbed the ends in.  It looked really pretty, even if it did make for a very large wreath circumference wise, in the end.  I had also brought lots of cute little ornaments and ribbon to decorate our wreath with.  And of course, we had the four candles, each slightly larger than the next, that we would light in turn, every Sunday until Christmas.

We had so much stuff, we were happy to share with anyone who wanted something.  Sarah liked being able to hand out little pretties to her friends. 🙂  We still ended up bringing some home.  Like I said, I had never done this before, and I wasn’t sure what I would need.  And my motto is always, better too much than too little!

It was a bit tricky getting it into the car, since I needed two hands to hold the thing, it was so big!  Fortunately, another friend was also leaving at the same time, and she helped me open the car door.  I really didn’t want to accidentally drop it and ruin it after all our hard work!

It really did turn out beautifully, didn’t it? That large candle in the middle isn’t part of the wreath, but we thought it looked nice there anyway. On New Year’s Eve I lit all the candles one last time, just for fun, while we ate dinner.  The wreath had already given up the ghost, though, and as one of the candles burned down completely, the whole thing caught on fire!  Someone just happened to glance over while we were at the table and saw the flames shooting up into the chimney.  Good thing we didn’t have it on our table!  Chris ran over with a glass of water and put the fire out, and we carried on without the candle light. 🙂

The next day I pulled off the unburned decorations, to save for next year and tossed the rest into the compost.  Now that I sort of now what to do, I plan on making my own every year.  It was so fun, and I really like that Sarah and I got to do it together.  It made it that much more special.

This year was different than years’ past.  We ate in the evening rather than the afternoon, to accommodate Nick’s crazy school schedule, but it was still a great day  and we had lots of fun and together time.

Since the kids already had the afternoon off due to teacher training, I didn’t use a joker day.  They were a little bummed that they actually had to go to school on a holiday!?!, but I don’t think they were scarred permanently.  I did my usual cooking and baking ahead of time, which made the actual day stress free and very relaxing.  I don’t think I will mind if we have to permanently switch to eating in the evening, for this reason alone. 🙂

But even though I wasn’t stressed, there was still a lot of cooking to be done  So I picked up some ready-made pizzas on my last-minute run to the grocery store for lunch.  The kids were thrilled.  This kind of convenience food is a rare occurrence=treat in our house.

I consulted my turkey guru, Alton Brown, for a quick reminder on exactly how long to cook the thing, and the little kids were enchanted.  They spent the next while clicking on Alton Brown videos, laughing hysterically all the while.  (He did have a couple rather funny Thanksgiving ones.)

Sophie got us all in the spirit by donning her customary attire. There was also football on tv, and card games to play. The missionaries were supposed to come at 6, which was perfect, since Nick didn’t get home until 5:45.  Well, his train was late, so he missed his bus, so he didn’t get home for a while.  We tried to call him, but he had his phone turned off, and we were just about to panic and go looking for him, when he walked in the door.  We did get a call from the missionaries, though, just a few minutes before they were due to arrive informing us they were still in Zurich!  Yeah, not cool.

We started without them.  I had everything timed pretty perfectly, to be ready and finished at the same time, and there was no reason we should all eat cold, dried out food.  It was quite fabulous, I might add.  The menu consisted of;

garlic mashed potatoes, that stay warm in the crock pot,  Pecan, apple, and pumpkin pie, that was staying cool in the fridge, my mom’s rolls, and for the first time ever, sweet potato casserole.

Sophie and I set the table.  I just love my tablecloth.  It’s so perfect for autumn!  Thanks again, Tanya. 🙂  If you look close you can see the giant veggie tray with ranch dressing, and the pull-aparts (monkey bread) just waiting for hungry folks to devour them.  The proud and happy cook!And notice the empty sink!  Yes, for the first time ever, when we sat down to eat, the only dirty dishes were the ones on the table! A definite achievement!  But it made clean up afterwards so much easier.  Another bonus to eating later on.

We bought our turkey for dirt cheap in Germany, and also had ham for those non-poultry eating members of our family.  In fact, when I went to wake up Noah that morning for school, the first thing I said to him was, “Happy turkey day!”  And he responded with, “You mean, happy ham day!” 🙂 I had to pre-carve the turkey and hide the carcass under a layer of aluminum foil, so it wouldn’t freak out Sarah too bad.  Still, the wings and drums were too much for her, and she ended up eating dinner like this.Reminds me of that guy on Fat Albert who had eye holes cut out of his hat!  Only she didn’t want the eye holes. haha

I am not sure it’s really the ham that Noah loves so much, as it is the barbecue sauce he dips it into.  He even puts it on his rolls!I always make sure to have a brand new bottle just for Thanksgiving, so there will for sure be enough to go around. 🙂

I have to give a special shout out to Sophie here.  Without her help, willingly and happily given, our Thanksgiving feasts wouldn’t nearly be as pretty or as fun.  All the kids help out in little ways, but she really goes the extra mile, doing whatever I need her to, and LOVES to make sure the table is as pretty as possible.  Thank you, Sophie! I also made two kinds of jello this year.  One just plain, like always, and for fun, a new recipe.  It had a pretzel crust, a layer of sweetened cream cheese, and then jello with fruit on top.  I was so happy when one of the Elders picked it up off the table and exclaimed, “Oh I love this stuff!  My mom makes it every year!”  Score one hostess point for me.

Alexandra had a rather unique meal.  With the main ingredient being sugar.  But she did do some heavy snacking from the veggie tray, so I think it evened out in the end.

It was a wonderful holiday, filled with all the traditional things; family, food, fun, football, and even food comas!

We know how important it is for the kids to develop good homework habits early on.  It can make all the difference when they are older and homework starts to really get hard and time consuming.  We have provided them all with desks and comfy chairs in their rooms expressly for this purpose.  So where do they consistently do their homework?

On the floor right by the front door.  Weird.  And then they complain when people open the door and hit them in the back.  Or when people are walking from the kitchen to the living room and step on their papers.  But still they won’t just go to their desks, despite my repeated reminders.

Sarah isn’t much better. She does her homework on the floor of Chris’ office.  At least she isn’t in a main traffic path, but still, it has to be hard writing on carpet.  Sometimes she will sit at her desk, but not as often as I’d like.  In fact, the kitchen table is their favorite alternative to the floor.  Although I do hear complaints that the music/tv/conversation of others is too loud and distracting them.  Gee, maybe it would be better in your room! (shakes head)

At least Nick does use his desk for homework. And to store his candy.  And his trash.  And his favorite books.  And his drawings.  Not sure how he has room to actually work, actually.

And this picture is just for fun. When the computer guru in your house is left-handed, it’s just easier to adapt then constantly move the mouse back and forth.  All of us right handers are developing untapped regions in our brains, controlling the mouse with our left hand. 🙂  Alexandra knows no other way!

The note that comes home from school announcing the annual turnip parade always cracks me up.  “Please be sure your child brings a knife and other cutting tools to school on ____.  ”  And don’t forget that the 5 graders get handed those mini-flame thrower-things to light all the little kids’ candles with.  Pure Swiss awesomeness!  (In their defense, it is against the rules to have knives at school just for fun.  Some kid in Nick’s 2nd grade class brought a pocketknife to school, threatened another kid with it, and got in a lot of trouble.  But, if your class is going on a walk in the forest, then you are allowed to bring one, cuz who knows what you will need to cut.  They just use a common sense approach, which I really appreciate.)

Anyway, Sophie and Noah carved their turnips in school, with the help of the fourth and sixth graders.  That means Sarah was in Noah’s class helping the kids carve.  But she was very sad that she didn’t get to make one for herself.  So while she was at school, I carved an extra mini pumpkin we had leftover from Halloween for her.  She was very happy.

Alexandra had chosen her turnip out of the big box of them at pre-school the day before, and we had brought it home to keep it safe from the other kids. 🙂  Thursday morning we were supposed to go carve it with all the other mommies and kids at the preschool, but she didn’t want to go.  To be honest, I didn’t feel like it either, so we just carved it at home, and everyone was happy.

Sarah, Alexandra and I walked together with the group from her preschool, and Sophie and Noah walked with their school classes.  Nick waited at the school for Chris to come, and they took these pictures as we came back.  Walking outside at night is always so magical.  I just love it.  It’s especially fun when you are in a big group and everyone is singing fun songs, and people are waving out their windows at you.  Such a simple, fun tradition.

When we got back to the school, we sang a few more songs accompanied by the jr high band, drank some Punsch, and the kids ate their chocolate breads.  It was kind of sad this year, though.  Normally, there is always hot soup to eat as well, but the group in charge of that didn’t want to do it this year. 🙁  I made the same soup at home for when we got back, but it just wasn’t the same.  So I am starting a grass-roots campaign to have it back again next year.  If the Elternverein doesn’t want to do it, maybe I can get enough parents together to just do it ourselves.  Otherwise, it was a wonderful evening, and next year, Sophie and Sarah and I are making pumpkin lanterns together. 🙂

She only ever lets me do her hair like this when no one else will see it.  That means I can never do her hair cute for all the places it would make the most sense to do it.  No cute hair for church, no cute hair for Pre-school, no cute hair for errand running.  But if we are just hanging out at home, she will ask me to do her hair.  I always oblige.

She didn’t even want me to take this picture, but I finally talked her into it.  Here is a better one with her face actually showing.