Hard to believe a year has gone by since the last post of this kind.
With my working full time - again, because whatever happened to "nobody is getting time off in December"?!?! - , visiting customers gifting them mandarins and driving Colin to and from practice I haven't had time to shop, bake and decorate, but unlike last year my parents did't volunteer to host us. On the contrary.
Dad said the 24th is always stressful for them. Mom being the official photographer at the children's mass that lasts until around 7pm, and Dad having to "warm up" with his choir for Midnight mass as early as 9:30pm, so they don't want to have any plans.
Looking back I don't know what possessed me. I suggested they visited us on December 23 instead. What was I thinking?
After the week of h*** at the office I had to entertain not only my parents but also my SIL and niece. husband suggested to invite them over, too, which, of course was a nice idea, but it added more work. You see, while Colin is a flexitarian (yes, it happened a little more than a year ago), my 20 yo niece has always been a strict vegetarian. There went our filet mignon.
But let's start at the beginning. As I was saying, work was very stressful. The night from Thursday to Friday brought some heavy storms, one of which caused damage on the electricity supply in Zermatt, our mountain office. As soon as I walked into the office on Friday morning, the phone kept ringing. Hotels and sports equipment stores called to say they don't have internet, access to server, can't issue room keys, use the credit card tool, you name it.
What a mess. While most were understanding, one literally behaved like a toddler. Called three times, the last time to ask for the boss and complain. Can I just mention that this customer's problem was solved within half an hour?
I was looking forward to meeting our friends for dinner. I had arranged this last minute event because Colin's plans fell through. He was invited to a Christmas party by a girl at his school and was looking forward to it. The night before he got uninvited as there were going to be too many people. Ouch.
"You know what?" I said "forget about these plans. We'll make new plans. how about asking your "old" friends?" I was referring to his best friends from Junior High. And I was confident that they would be available Friday night before Christmas. Sometimes you need a little luck, don't you?
One of the two families accepted, and they even brought their Grandma who was visiting for the Holidays. It was a very nice and fun evening. The Dad of the family thanked my husband for the initiative. They both couldn't stop laughing. Of course both of them didn't do a thing, they were told by their wives that they were going to have plans.
Saturday morning I woke up shorty after 6am and noticed I had slept through the night! What a Christmas gift!
Also, I was gonna need the energy. I got up and got to work. Husband had promised to help, and his shift was starting at 8am. When he got up at 8:20am I was just unloading the dishwasher, and he kept standing in my way. I mentioned as much and wanted to give him his first job, but he chose to go back to bed.
Can you believe this guy? After a while I sat down to write a list of things that needed to be done, checking the ones I already took care of:
It worked. After a while both guys did their jobs. Well, one of them took a nap in-between.
It was still stressful. Shortly after the guests arrived I wanted to start the dishwasher so it would be done when we were going to need it later. It stopped after a while, displaying an A2 error. I googled it, and it didn't sound encouraging.
Well, the first thing you do is you just try again, right? The same thing happened again. It stopped washing after about half an hour. "A2".
The third time was a charm, but of course by then, we had accumulated a lot of dirty dishes, and the device was nowhere from being ready to unload.
I was happy with the food though. Celery root and egg canapés, cherry tomato and mozzarella skewers, wild British Columbia salmon and two kinds of lasagna, one with beef, red wine and tomato, the other one with mushrooms and cream. Both really delicious.
Dessert looked great, too. Cinnamon roll cheesecake. It was overbooked, so I wasn't happy about that, but it did look nice.
Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, including me, once I calmed down from running around all day.
Even though we said "no gifts, except for the kids" years ago, there were a lot of "just a little somethings". I was very happy about what Colin got me.
Emily is a Canadian journalist who has been living, writing for a news portal and YouTubing in Switzerland for over a decade. She makes fun of Swiss people's narrow-mindedness, and I find her sharp powers of observation hilarious. I had no idea she had written a book womansplaining Switzerland, and as it turned out it's the gift I never knew I always wanted. I read it within 24 hours, and that means something! As Colin puts it, I usually buy books with the best intentions to read them, but they usually gather dust on the bedside table.
So the aftermath was - and still is - a lot of cleaning up.
On Christmas Eve we did something I've been wanting to do for a while. I even blogged about it a couple of years ago. We spent the evening at the airport. While it wasn't as magical as I imagined it, we still had a good time.
Looks like Zurich, Switzerland wasn't the place to be - the flight from the North Pole arrived in London, England:
No big deal. We were home in time for the third quarter of the football game, and the Seattle Seahawks made us a Christmas gift and won against the Tennessee Titans.
On the 25th Colin and I watched "home alone". It was amusing to observe him. He was indignant about Kevin's jumping on the bed, with his street shoes on, throwing around popcorn. I've been raising him well.
Later we had to pick up some groceries. December 25 is a very strict holiday in Switzerland, and only gas station convenience stores or retail at airports and train stations are allowed to be open.
We drove to the next large-ish town, where he attends Senior High and walked around in the Old Town, in search for some Christmas lights.
So for the rest of the year you'll have to excuse us. Between December 26 and 31 I'll be watching the Spengler Cup. Shoot, I forgot I also have to work Wednesday through Friday. Yeah, well. Can't have it all.
You must be so tired! I'm glad you had some fun in between all the work. Happy New Year!
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