Fröhliche Weihnachten

It's the last day of 2012, and I'm hoping to get one more blog post in for the year. New Year's Eve is known to German-speakers as Silvester (from the feast day of St. Silvester) and we are now "Zwischen den Jahren" or between the years, which is generally the week between Christmas and New Year's. We counted down to Christmas with Advent calendars, and Christmas will officially end on January 6, the Epiphany or Three Kings' Day. This is a time for schmücken, schmecken, und schenken! That is -- decorating, tasting and giving!

We had a great Christmas this year with Bob's parents staying with us, and we made a return trip this year to Santa's workshop at the summit of Rochers de Naye near Montreux. The kids are at a perfect age to take in the magic of the season.

Chateau de Chillon

As we look back on 2012, we have enjoyed a lot of travel and great visits with family. This holiday season, we visited a couple of spots with Bob's parents that have been on our "to visit" list. One was Chateau de Chillon (Chillon Castle), on Lake Geneva. It is a moated castle that is in the midst of spectacular scenery and has lots of places to explore inside. The kids were really interested in the secret passageways, the basement where the prisoners were kept, and most exciting -- the "latrines". The throne, as such, was a wooden seat with a view straight down to the lake. Quite memorable!

Yesterday, we visited Strasbourg, France for their famous Christmas market. It was our first visit to the city, and it was an easy train ride from Basel. Strasbourg is a beautiful city that was full of Christmas with smells of waffles and gingerbread, narrow alleyways with draped Christmas decorations, and tall trees decorated. We made sure to have "vin chaud", or hot wine, and visited the massive city Cathedral. When the sun went down in late afternoon, it was even more beautiful when the Christmas lights were bright in the streets. It was busy with people, but not nearly as packed as the city is during weekends before Christmas. What a great way to revel in the season!

Strasbourg, FR

So, we wish you all the best health, happiness and success in 2013! Tonight, we made sure to indulge in a chocolate mousse cake topped with happy marzipan pigs and lucky shamrocks to bring us luck in the New Year. Alles Gute zum neuen Jahr!