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!

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.

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!