'T was the night before Christmas - 2021 Edition

I started the 'T was the night before Christmas posts in 2012 when Colin was only four years old, and it was hard for me to get stuff done with an excited toddler around me.

In 2013 I was sick in bed for almost a week and had to ask other busy people for help.

In 2014 hubby had eye surgery, and I had to take over client visits at the office for a while. 

2015 there were no incidents, and in the following years I got so busy doing the Elf on the Shelf thing, and I skipped a few years.

2019 we had no idea it was going to be the last "normal" Christmas season. Soon thereafter the Corona Virus made its ugly appliance. 

So this season was another busy one, among other things due to the fact that the World University Games were canceled and thus filled our training schedule. We missed the traditional lightning of the village Christmas Tree: It takes place on the third Thursday in November, which of course collides with Thanksgiving in the U.S.

I took this picture a few nights later, when snow was falling.

Driving was a bitch that evening. Underneath the pretty snow there was a layer of black ice. Good thing I don't live far from the office. Still, when the weather forecast predicted more snow on a practice night, I chickened out. Too many incidents with my car this year. I was lucky that the insurance company did not kick me out.

I had planned to go visit the Coca-Cola Truck. It was going to be at three locations not too far from us throughout December. Then our training schedule changed, spoiling my hopeful plans. Can you imagine my delight upon discovering that the truck was still there as we drove home? All the visitors had left, the promoters and music technicians, too, so there was no playing of "Wonderful Dream". It was cold, but it was more than OK. A few guys were busy disassembling the equipment, and I got a once in a lifetime opportunity to photograph my beloved truck without any annoying people photo bombing my shot. I think this was one of my favorite December moments!

I somehow managed to bake Grittibänze, Swiss yeast characters. The flour had expired a year ago, but I didn't want to get dressed and run to the store. I checked for bugs, there weren't any. It was fine.

The elves Cookie & Biscuit were visiting our house this season again. I wasn't sure whether I was doing it for me or for 13yo Colin, but I think he had a blast, too. At the very least he snapped a few pictures.

Throughout the month of December we took them to every game.

I like to think they were the team's secret mascot, making an appearance in every video.

I can't find it now, but there's this meme talking about Hockey Moms' only socializing happening at the rink, and it's kind of true. We are lucky enough to have friends who live in the vicinity of one of the team's opponent. Sometimes they come and watch the game, and we go out for dinner afterwards. This was one of these precious opportunities. They picked a nice location, too. 

Speaking of nice locations. There's this hotel in Lucerne that is famous for its Christmas lights. One night when the guys were training for two hours (plus getting dressed, undressed and showered for another 45- 60 minutes), I took a night trip to the Seeburg, that's the name of the etablissement. 

I felt they didn't go all the way like other years, but it was still nice, and even though it was very cold, I went into the Old Town for more (Christmas) lights.

More snow, and to my surprise and delight, my teenager found out he likes to free my car from the snow! I think when I'm old and gray, I will cherish this picture. Look, my boy, being all nice and helpful!

In return, I didn't bitch when I had to get up at stupid o'clock (in case you're wondering, I'm talking about 4:15am) to drive him to the meeting point from where they boarded the team busses that took them to a remote location in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland for their away game. 

Unlike other parents who crawled back into bed, we drove there ourselves, and I did not regret it. Not only was the area super charming - yet deserted...

Thanks to our knowledgable coworker, we learned that a few villages further, there's a famous architectural piece of art by Mario Botta, which happens to be the church San Giovanni Battista. More like a chapel though. It may look gigantic, but it's tiny. It was locked, but looking inside we estimated it holds less than a dozen people. 

The boys played well and still lost after shootout. 

On our way home we stopped to say hello to these adorable fellows.

Back in the city I like to admire the (outdoor) mall's Christmas decoration.  

Why are there no people? Three words: Swiss opening hours. 

They're ridiculous, especially in predominantly Catholic states. Even in December, shops have to close at 7pm, (some have "extended" hours on Thursday or Friday. Till 8pm.)  So when Colin trains late, I can't even get chores done or get dinner for him, other than from the gas station convenience store. Or McD. Boo. 

Speaking of chores. Some of them were waiting for me at hone. Laundry. Of course, right. It doesn't go away only because it's Christmas time. 

Office Christmas cards. I once carelessly claimed that machine printed address labels on envelopes were not classy. Hand-written made all the difference, I said. Knock yourself out, hubby said. I never got to it during work hours. So here I was, sitting at home by the (fake) fireplace, playing Christmas music, getting them done. With our elves I had nice company, too, so it wasn't bad at all.

I pulled my share of mandarin customer visits on a Friday. Bad choice. Traffic jam. Was it just the usual pre-Christmas madness or did it have anything to do with this special police van? It said forensic unit, so the equivalent of CSI. A former classmate of mine works for them, I sent him this picture, asking what was going on. He was like "oh, that van? It's our bomb squad. Don't worry though. Most times, it's false alarm. Happy Holidays!"

Right.

For my lunch break (and in order to get a phone charger cable) I went to IKEA. In the bathroom I read an instruction on how to wash my hands:

Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or for as long as it takes to list 10 IKEA products.

Hahaha, genius! Here we go, I purchased all of them at some point: 

Billy (shelf), tea lights, plants, Mäla (felt-tip pens), IKEA 365 + (cookware), Lillhult (my phone charger cable), Fredriksjön (shower towel) Millberget (office swivel chair), Detolf (glass door cabinet), Samla (plastic container) and of course köttbullar, meatballs.

On my way back to the office I encountered this guy. He was either the manager of this Christmas tree patch or a clever thief. Wanna guess how many Christmas trees he loaded into and onto his station wagon? (Answer at the end of this post)

Either way he didn't mind my taking a picture so I like to think he owned these trees. 

It can't be Christmas before we don't pay our beloved Canadian grocery store a visit to get some British Columbian salmon and other treats.

Colin and I took my Mom to Montreux in the French speaking part of Switzerland to visit their famous Christmas Market. She was very excited about the Ferris wheel. 

As nice as this day trip was, I sort of missed my last opportunity to get the house ready for Christmas. Our lovely elves did their best to set up the tree, but it was simply to hard for them, that's why they asked for Colin's help. 

This is as far as he got.

While I was juggling things in the kitchen, I asked hubby to help Colin. This is what happened. Thanks for nothing. 

Not five minutes too soon before my parents arrived everything looked nice.

The fillet of beef was prepared for 3.5 hours using the low-temperature long-time cooking method. It turned out super tender. 

I never got around to baking several kinds of Christmas cookies, but I got these chocolate chai cupcakes. from the freezer and reheated them. Yum!

And just like that, Christmas is over. Poof, this balloon we kept inflating, collapsed. 

There's always New Year's Eve. We'll have guests, so we'll do it all over again.

How was your Christmas? Let me know below!

PS: I asked you to guess the number of Christmas trees the man had loaded into and onto his car? It was 17. I'm not sure if he was done at that point, or if there were more to come ;-)