This evening should be one of the highlights of Christmas for me. It could however, thanks to this wretched flu, which is refusing to go away, turn into a bit of a DIS-AAASTER darling (apply Craig Revel-Horward voice at this point).

I’m supposed to be reading at the service of nine lessons and carols in the Augustinerkirche in the centre of Zürich this evening. The Augustiner is absolutely my favourite church in Zürich and because it belongs to the Old Catholics, a sister church of the Anglican Church, sometimes if we’re very good we get to borrow it.

It was built in 1270 and for a while after the Reformation was used as the Mint, where all the coins were produced in Zürich, before being reopened in the late 1800’s and beautifully and simply renovated about 20 years ago. The atmosphere is just amazing and the acoustics are very good too, so the choir will sound fabulous.

It’s all part of our mission to convert the Swiss to the joys of English Christmas carols sung by a really good choir…and they come in droves , they really do! Somehow there isn’t really an equivalent here and there even free mince pies and mulled wine to be had afterwards. What more could you want really?!

I shall be reading about the Angel Gabriel – which is good because there are no difficult words for me to trip over and it’s not one of the longer readings. The friend who was supposed to jump in and do it for me if my voice completely failed has now herself gone down with the flu, so stuffed full of cold remedy and cough sweets I shall just have to snuffle my way through it. Maybe people will take the opportunity to have a little shut-eye at that point! If nothing else my voice is decidedly sexier than normal!

So please send positive vibes my friends – there’s a blizzard outside and I’m beginning to think that everything is conspiring to thwart me (there’s a nice archaic phrase for you!).

Here’s to cold remedy and cough sweets and the possibility that the snow will keep some of the crowds away!

best wishes

Helen

I’m in a really nice secret bee – the Stitch Tease bee. We’re quite small, but we’re a friendly bunch and there are some exciting projects going on, which I haven’t been able to show you yet, as they are all secret until we finish up in the spring.

Annabella suggested this Christmas that we should do a Secret Santa. We each had to make three suggestions and finally today I can show you what my lovely partner Di sent me from California…

Aren’t they gorgeous….wonderful mug rugs, yummy chocs and Christmas wine stoppers (now there’s something I’d never be able to find in Switzerland!) – thank you so much Di. I LOVE THEM!!!!

Here’s what I sent to my partner Susan…

It was so much fun doing this Secret Santa and I’ve loved getting to know the wonderful quilters in the bee over the last year or so! I even got to meet up with some at FQR last year.

Helen

There’s only one more Sunday before Christmas. Preparations are coming along nicely, now that I’ve actually made it out of bed again. Today is for decorating, baking Christmas Guetzli, getting on with Christmas knitting and secret sewing presents (no photos yet – sorry!). It’s pouring with rain outside, as it has for the last couple of days, and all our lovely snow is now a sorry, soggy mess. If only it could be a couple of degrees colder…..

It feels like Christmas isn’t far away!

Helen

I’m still here – a bit quiet (my server was down yesterday), but as I’m still in bed fighting the nasty virus, there probably wouldn’t have been much of an edifying nature to report anyway.

The achievement of my week has been briefly feeling well enough yesterday to stagger to the butcher’s and order the turkey for Christmas. So whatever else happens or doesn’t, we will have something to eat on the 25th.

Otherwise, my Christmas preparations have somewhat gone out of the window. I’m very glad I had anyway decided to a) downsize Christmas (although maybe not this much!) and b) do a little bit every day in December. I’m not in an awful state, not yet anyway. The fact that my children have no Christmas presents may develop into a major issue if I don’t start feeling better soon though!

Of course it would help if I had ideas…. I can just about manage the girls – and they were kind enough to give me some reasonable suggestions. But my son’s idea of a Christmas list was to just write ‘an iphone 5’ and that he didn’t want anything else at all. Yeah right, like that’s really going to happen… So I’m now left with trying to buy something for a boy who only wants a flashy show off phone, but would also under protest accept an ipad mini (hahahaha!), neither of which I would buy in a million years. (I should add that the very last suggestion, by which time he was in a VERY bad mood about his stupid parents, who clearly understand nothing at all, was for money, which he would then use to buy one of said gadgets…..duh, no I don’t think we are that stupid!)

What is it with kids today? – it seems boys especially have no interests other than the passive consumption of mindless computer games. And those things really do rot their brains and deprive them of the ability to think creatively and independently. Couple that with the onset of puberty and oh dear, not a good situation…..

So what am I doing with my time other than drinking cold remedy, cancelling all sorts of lovely social events and feeling sorry for myself (my sinuses hurt like anything today, coupled with a runny nose and blinding headache, thank you for asking)….well knitting of course. There’s not a lot else I can do actually, so I’m plodding away at the Austin Hoodie. Tomorrow I may be able to show you a large quantity of shapeless purple knitting.

I can tell you’re looking forward to that!

Helen

(Today I’m linking in with Blog in France’s Christmas Blog Hop…you might want to hop over there and have a look at some of the other links)

When I came to Switzerland over 20 years ago (gulp! Can it really be that long?), I casually assumed that having lived in the UK and the US, living in Switzerland would be a breeze. I knew I had two new languages (German and Schwyzertüütch) to learn, and within a couple of years I had them under my belt. What I hadn’t really realized were the cultural differences I was about to encounter. My attitude was along the lines of ‘it’s Europe, right. How different can they be?’. Wrong. They are different. But that’s OK. We’ve rubbed along over the years and if I’m honest, these days I’m probably more Swiss than British.

But Christmas. Wow! It’s completely different. They do all sorts of things we in the UK don’t and don’t do the things we do.

First off, Santa Claus doesn’t come down the chimney on Christmas Eve. He comes wandering out of the forest on the 6th of December with a disreputable character called Schmutzli  (which actually translates as ‘scruffy’, but he has something of the monk about him) and is known as Sami Claus (Saint Niklaus). He tells bad children off and praises the good ones and distributes peanuts and mandarin oranges and if you’re really lucky, chocolate. He’s very busy in schools and visiting families in the village on the 6th and then he’s done, that’s it for the year.

This was always a bit tricky…when the children were small Sami Claus popped up at playgroup, at kindergarten and school ….and then for some strange reason came down our chimney at Christmas…but not down anyone else’s….explain that one please! “British people are just special”, “he’s helping out the Christkind” (the Christ child who brings the presents in Switzerland)…were greeted by “but mum, why doesn’t the Christ child come to our house?”,”why does Santa come down the chimney? At my friend’s house he rang the doorbell”, “what has happened to his donkey, don’t the reindeer like the donkey?” Chaos I tell you….and I certainly never asked Sami Claus and Schmutzli to visit our house. Talk about adding to the confusion!

On the 6th December, in addition to the traditional nuts and mandarin oranges, the Swiss bake and eat Grittibänz – bread baked in the shape of a man, often with a pipe – these go back into the annals of time, were originally in the shape of a bishop (St Niklaus), but quite why they are today just a man with a pipe seems unclear although the change seems to have taken place at the time of the Reformation (when I guess they didn’t like bishops much!).

One thing that surprised me, coming from a land where the Christmas Dinner menu is more or less cast in stone, is that there is no traditional Christmas meal here. The big celebration is on the 24th as it is in most of Europe, and generally people work until 4pm. The most common menu I’ve come across seems to be fondue chinois – but more on the grounds that it isn’t something that you would otherwise eat every day and it also involves almost no preparation.

The catering effort where Christmas is concerned goes into the production of industrial quantities and multitudinous varieties of Guetzli or Christmas cookies. The Swiss are REALLY big into their Guetzli. I know housewives who will spend the entire month of December baking them and distribute plates of exquisite cookies to friends and neighbours (who have all been baking them too!). To say that I have seen a competitive edge in women who otherwise wouldn’t say boo to a Christmas goose is putting it mildly. Thankfully Guetzli seem to keep for ages, so I’m sure most Swiss families are still eating them long into January.

Thankfully I don’t feel the need to get caught up in all the baking – I make one or two kinds to keep my husband happy and we also enjoy lots of mince pies, shortbread and a Christmas cake!

This is one of our favourite Guetzli recipes if you would like to give it a try! It’s also one of the simplest!

Mailanderli

• 250g butter, beaten in a basin until it’s creamed
• 250g sugar
• 3 eggs
• A pinch of salt
• The peel of one lemon
• 500g flour

Mix the butter, sugar and eggs until well-creamed. Add the remaining ingredients, mix well and then leave the mixture to cool in the fridge for a while.

Roll out the mixture 3-4mm thick and cut out a variety of shapes (I have hearts, various animals etc). Lay them on a baking tray and paint with egg yolk.

Bake at 200 degrees (400F) in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Happy Christmas!

Helen