In the Spirit of the Season

Welcome back to another episode of A'lil Hoohaa's monthly photo blogging challenge. 

This month’s theme was "In the spirit of the season".

I recently came across a small but lovely story from Hudson Bay in Canada. A mother polar bear was spotted with her cub, and later, with another young bear that clearly wasn’t hers. Apparently, this kind of adoption is extremely rare. 13 cases in 45 years have been documented.

I like to imagine the other cub’s mother didn’t make it, and that this bear simply stepped in. It may not be scientific, but it feels right. And somehow, very much in the spirit of the season.

How I wish I had a real life story including humans for you, but no. 

The people around me, and that partly includes myself, are mostly worried about getting things done, creating a festive atmosphere, inviting and reciprocating, and then there’s the consumerism. To be fair, real life makes it hard to get into the spirit: so much going on at work and school, hockey, and then the occasional curveball like hubby's car leaking oil after coming back from maintenance.

Well, here’s what we still managed to do. Colin had an away game in the Italian part of Switzerland. On one hand, it’s a huge time thief: three hours each way, dropping him off 90 minutes before the game, and waiting an hour until the boys showered and enjoyed a well-deserved winner’s pizza. On the other hand, we get to escape the fog, stroll along the lake, and soak up vacation vibes.

Let me tell you about this gem:

In Ticino, much of life still happens in the piazza, the town square where people pass through, linger, meet, and observe each other. At Christmas, public trees aren’t just decoration. People are invited to write wishes and hang them on the branches, turning the tree into something shared. During the pandemic, many wishes were direct and practical: health, protection, even asking baby Jesus to make mask mandates disappear. Nowadays, the wishes are often rolled into small tubes, harder to read and more private. 

I visited two very different Christmas markets. The one I attended with my mom was more of a pop-up event. About twenty vendors set up shop in the park surrounding Villa Boveri, a historic mansion from Switzerland’s industrial founding era, once home to the Boveri family, whose BBC company shaped Baden into a major industrial and engineering center. Today, the villa serves as a seminar and cultural venue, offering an inspiring setting for meetings, events, and celebrations.

The vendors at this market were all about handmade, artsy items. They made beautiful decorations out of glass, recycled materials, driftwood, you name it. I wonder how much they actually sold. Nowadays, people are trying to reduce “dust gatherers” and avoid accumulating more pretty-but-useless stuff. Either way, we had a lovely time just looking at everything, including some fun “Christmas trees.”

What a contrast this polished, professional, and commercial Christmas market was. I went there with Colin on the eve of his last day of school. He had been busy with projects and tests plus training and playing with U18 and U21... he deserved a treat. Over five weeks, people had gathered here for mulled wine, cheese fondue, apple fritters, waffles, you name it.

Of course December wouldn't be complete without our elves Cookie and Biscuit. They showed up every single day, hopefully brightening Colin's day. I think the highlights were the running water and the Orange is the new Black scene.

If you do something for the third time, it becomes a tradition, right? Friday night pizza dinner with friends at our local Old Town. The other family’s mom told a story you can probably relate to: she found the most amazing, large advent wreath, placed it prominently on the coffee table, and couldn’t wait for her family’s reaction. The family being husband and triplet sons, Colin's age... saw and said… nothing. Welcome to a female’s life, right?

I don't want to keep these guys from you. The Santa bears at the Zurich main train station made me smile, and I hope they do the same for you :-) Bonus picture: Check.

And that brings me to the end of this post. I hope my five, OK, six pictures got you into the spirit of the season.

As always, don’t forget to check out the posts from my fellow bloggers participating in this month’s challenge! Thank you all for being part of my blogging journey this year — I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to welcome the new year.