Here is a sign that we see at the entrance to a French village on the way to church. It says, Be careful of Children with Really Bad Hair. Happy February to you! I am not quite sure how we ended up here, but I have a hunch several of us may have been sick in bed when it happened. This year has been an exceptionally hard one for us, healthwise. I think it’s a combination of the new Continental germs and the fact that with the kids in school this year, they have to go collect new germs every day and bring them home. Better general health was one side benefit of homeschooling that I surely do miss. This week we are capping off three weeks of intense flu with a dose of croup for Hermes and a new cold virus for him and for me as well. We wash hands, we wash pillowcases, we drink tea and Airborne and we still get sick. Sometimes it is nice to be forced to stay home and watch movies, but it does make it hard to grocery shop (especially when the stores close at 6:30.) Ah, well. We have done a couple other things. One is to start making bread using spelt flour, or epeautre as it is called in French, or even better, Dinkel, as it is called in German. If you get whole wheat spelt it is called Dunkel Dinkel which is very fun to say. If you get the light kind of spelt flour, the German words are Dinkel Hell. Yikes! Ah, fun with words. Now that the 3 olders are learning some German along with their French, they get to laugh at the same funny little things that I’ve snickered at for years, and there are moments when that makes all the fuss of this year worth it – just to say “Dinkel hell! Dinkel hell!” So we made a tresse out of Dinkel hell. Tresse is a light fluffy braided egg braid – Challah, that is very typically eaten here on the weekend. It has been a long time since I’ve eaten any, and was it ever a treat to make and eat one now. Spelt does contain some gluten and I was worried that Athena and I might suffer some ill effects, although we’d been dabbling in spelt for a few weeks. But honestly, when I first bit into that bread, I didn’t even care. Thankfully – no ill effects at all! Just sadness that the bread went so quickly. Hermes was enraptured with the bread process and he and Athena pinched off some dough and fashioned a turtle with cloves for eyes.
Here is Athena, thinking she is in a happy bread dream.
In school the kids all seem to have passed some sort of invisible road block. Even if they won’t admit it, something is clicking for all of them. I hear French coming out of their mouths, talking with their grandparents, with neighbor kids, on the telephone. They don’t seem quite as emotionally exhausted at the end of the day, and there is a little bit of energy left to think about other things. There are still tears and frustration about the logistics of the thing, but it is easier to sort out now which is due to the language and which to the aggravation of school in general. They finished the first semester a couple weeks ago. We have continually told them that this year is NOT about getting good grades. Nevertheless, it is been gratifying to each of them that he or she has had some good tests and has proof for the teacher and the rest of the class that they are not genuine nincompoops (just posing for a little while). Zeus’ job goes well, and he returned at the end of last week from a trip to the Boston. This turned out to be very timely as he was able to escape the General Sickness and has so far alone escaped unscathed (despite my flu shot – hmmm…) He packed an extra duffle bag in his suitcase and made a purposeful visit to Costco. He called me from there to ask about something on my list, and he had a dreamy sound in his voice, said he was just slowly walking up and down every aisle. The difference in the price of two bottles of contact solution he bought me there ($16) and two pack here ($65) more than covered the price of the taxi cab to get there. We have settled on a church – the Action Biblique de Montbeliard — about a fifteen minutes away in France. It’s a very vibrant, crowded, sound, loving, praying body of evangelical believers. In short – everything that we have always heard doesn’t exist in France! Ha! God is up to Things. Aslan is on the move. I love that the music is great, that the preaching is excellent and edifying and that the worshippers come in all colors and all ages. We’ve also attended a home group – a cellule – on Thursday evenings in one of the nearby villages. We just have to watch out for the Kids with Really Bad Hair.
Tag Archives: swiss life
Christmas Day ~ in pictures
The moment we’ve been waiting for.
Tracking Santa’s progress on the Norad Santa tracker.
It snowed all day – one of the few times we can see Bella clearly.
Not long into unwrapping, we had nearly buried our Playmobil Nativity. I worried that this was symbolic. The kids groaned, “Oh, Mom!”
Herme’s was sporting one of the finest rooster tails that I have seen in a long time. Worthy of Christmas Day!
Uncle Chip and Aunty Janet sent us a fun package containing among other things the original BBC/A&E Jane Austen’s five hour long Pride and Prejudice !!This was the girls’ reaction.
And this was the boys’.
Bella liked her new collar and fluffy bed.
The detritus after the storm.
A little while later in the boys’ room.
And in the girls’.
‘What I did on my vacation.’
Field of Mushrooms
Our Spelt Gingerbread House! Artemis used her Swiss geometry skills to design a house pattern, and we all had fun on decorating it on Christmas Eve. Notice the Christmas tree, snowman, goldfish pond and mushroom patch.
The Marzipan Lady of the House – made by Artemis
The backyard. There is a marzipan baby sleeping in a cradle on the toffee bench. No munching until after Christmas dinner!
In the afternoon Tata and Popop joined us for a festive Christmas dinner of Chinese fondue.
And then it was open season on the house.
Later that evening, we had a Skype visit with our cousins
and with Uncle Chip and Aunty Janet who put on a Christmas puppet show.
…and we responded in kind.
It was a lovely day. Merry Christmas 2010!
Our Homemade Swiss Christmas
I have always wanted a big bunch of mistletoe at Christmas – like in the old drawings in Charles Dicken’s books. And now I do! Hanging strategically in the middle of the hallway through which all must pass! It grows wild in the trees here, so when we were on our way back from a walk, I asked Zeus to stop the car while I got out and cut some. Turns out I wasn’t quite tall enough, so I had to turn back to the car and make pleady puppy eyes, and then Zeus got out and cut it for me. My hero! It seems, actually, that my boys don’t need a whole lot of encouragement for smooches. In fact, they usually try to waylay me – as in this photo. ***** Since we came with what we could fit into twelve suitcases and not exceeding 50 pounds, you may imagine that we didn’t bring a lot of our Christmas decorations. In fact, when talking about it long ago, the girls had said how it would be fun to do new decorations this year, and see what we could make. I did waver a bit sometimes – the stores are full of a lot of the same kind of stuff as at home. All glittery and shiny and not even too expensive. And when you read the label on it no wonder – it’s all made in China! This has always irked me – Christians in China are not free to celebrate Christmas, but somehow they are free to export a lot of Christmas crap. Hmmph. I did find myself thinking though, Should I just get a bunch of new stuff?? Our budget isn’t as tight right now as we thought it might be. But when I brought it up with The Committee, they resounded with an emphatic “NO!” So we didn’t, but got busy instead with our homemade Christmas. We spray painted some pinecones with gold and glittery spray paint.
We cut out paper snowflakes and made some gingerbread cookies for the tree – anyone recognize the Ikea cookie cutters?
Hermes strung popcorn…
…and worked on his fine motor skills.
We dried orange slices in Popop’s fruit dryer
and then hung them on with pretty ribbon.
The boys also got busy and creative and made us some Lego ornaments!
I drew the line at the Lego skeleton Hermes was putting on (‘No skeletons on the Christmas tree!’) but there are some other adventurous Lego guys jumping about in the jungle of branches, including Indiana Jones. I asked Hermes if Indy was seeking the True Treasure of the Ages, and he said vaguely that he was, so I am letting it slide.
And here it is! Our Christmas tree! We did buy some lights, and we’ve since added a star on top and a skirt that is actually a duvet cover in just the right shade of red. There are also a lot of foil wrapped ornaments in fun shapes: mushrooms, angels, bells, and they are all filled with?? Three guesses??? Chocolate! Chocolate!! CHOCOLATE!!! That is a beautiful thing about this country. The rule is to wait until the 25th to start nibbling. It’s not a super glamour tree, and that is just fine. It is happy and homey and very edible!
It makes me feel like this.
Basel Christmas Market
Here is a little more Weihnachtsmarkt ~ for all of you and especially for Debi.
Yesterday (Friday) afternoon after school the kids and I drove to Basel, met up with Zeus after work and went to the Basel Christmas market.
It was very cold but very festive.The Germans and Swiss Germans are the masters of creating charming ambiance with little glowing lights. The market is like its own little mini-city, where for the month of December stands are set up selling all kinds of beautiful arts and crafts and housewares and decorations and clothing and beautifulness.
Somehow cobblestones trap the cold and send it right up into your feet — the same way it did in St. Ursanne. I wanted to stick my toes into my cup of Gluhwein but instead I drank it and gave Artemis little sips (!) and ate snausages and drank hot chocolate.The drinks came in pretty mugs with drawings of the Christmas market that you could return to any other food stand and get a deposit back, or not: and then you could keep your cup as a souvenir. We kept ours!
This stand sold all kinds of beautiful carved wood ornaments and nativity sets.
This one sold all things made of beeswax. (Note to Katarina: the girls really like the hat you left here. I don’t know that you’ll be getting it back any time soon. Artemis is wearing right now, as I type.)
It’s funny how some things are so different from Christmas shopping at an American mall — outside in the fresh air, shopping while drinking Gluhwein, trolleys and trams going by dinging their bells; and some things just stay the same: the menfolk of the family were finished loooong before the ladies and Artemis worried that the photos of her in her warm puffy jacket might make her look fat.
At the entrance to the market there was a festive display from the Doll Museum of little forest critters making their Christmas preparations. I captured a little video.
A statement from Zeus: He regrets making monkey noises which are now recorded and saved for posterity. But he made up for it with his cute waving, don’t you think? His idea about adding music is a good one, but beyond my video making skills for the time being. The pictures is still a little jerky — sorry — I am learning. Most of this post was actually written on Stormie — so I am learning about mobile blogging, too — Ah, the wonders of technology!
The experience was very joyful, except for the moment when we (the girls) realized that there were only 15 minutes left until the market closed (yikes!!). On the way home in the car I kept thinking, “Thank you, Jesus, for sharing your Birthday and your presents with us! What a great party you have every year!”
In a shop window there was an enormous gingerbread house! Wow! It inspired us to come right home and work on a smaller version. Since it’s started snowing again this morning, adding to the 3.5 inches we got yesterday, and we are feeling cozy and holed-up, it may just be a perfect project for today.
Christmas Markets and St. Nicholas
In French you pronounce St. Nicholas San Nee-ko-LAH. His feast day on December 6th is sort of like opening day for the Christmas season. Zeus grew up with the tradition and I readily adopted it, because I appreciate the fact that it gives an opportunity to talk about the real St. Nicholas who was a real bishop of Myra in the early 300s. He was a faithful Christian man devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are some fun books out there to read to kids about St. Nicholas, like
The Legend of Saint Nicholas by Demi that tell the real story about the bishop
and how he liked to help people anonymously – perhaps once even throwing money down a chimney – hence some of our traditions associated with Santa Claus.
At home we put our shoes out on the night of December 5th, and in the morning ! St. Nicholas had filled them with chocolates and peanuts and mandarins and sometimes a little giftie! This year it was fun for our kids to hear people talking about St. Nicholas and to realize that that is a shared cultural experience. And, St. Nicholas actually came to our house!!
With St. Nicholas is Pere Fouttard, ‘Father Whip’, who leaves switches with your parents if they say you need them. He didn’t leave any with us, but St. Nicholas did read from his golden book and had a little encouragement and exhortation for each of the children.
It was quite amazing, because in his golden book it was written that Hermes should no longer sit on his Papa’s head when he is stretching, which is just what Papa had been saying himself not two hours before! St. Nicholas knows all! Hermes was quite sober at that.
Look! In this photo you can see the holiness glowing right out of the top of St. Nicholas’ head! Oh no, wait, that is just the lamp. Maybe that is why he was wearing the goofy little John Lennon sun glasses? They left us with mandarin oranges, peanuts and chocolate. We still have the peanuts and a couple mandarins, but the chocolate has all since disappeared.
Saturday we visited the Christmas market in St. Ursanne, a charming little medieval town not too far away. It has a beautiful old cloister, and on this particular day the streets were filled with artisans selling their wares, yummy Christmas treats and the local brass band, the fanfare, trumpeting out carols. I captured a little bit on my Stormie phone, which I am still learning my way around. So they are not the smoothest videos – but they are meant to give you a little flavor.
At our house things are getting more and more Christmassy – especially with the coverage of snow that keeps falling every three days or so.
Happy Preparations, Everyone!