Christmas with the Fehr's

This year I spent my first Christmas in Switzerland with Remko's family. It was great to participate in the old traditions, as well as make some new ones. First, the Christmas tree comes on Christmas Eve and you decorate it with real candles.

It's a little scary, but they burn out themselves and you just have to be a little careful with the placement, keeping an eye on the tree every once in awhile. Which is not such a hard task when it's this pretty. Another tradition is the bread man that you eat for breakfast. Here's the one Remko made for us.

Something new this year was the Legos. Remko and Michiel wanted to go through their stuff in the attic to see what they wanted to keep and what they could recycle or give away. They found a whole arsenal of Lego helicopters, ships, buildings, cranes, and other various machinery that kept everyone busy on Christmas Day.

Joline even had some "girl" Legos to play with.

And something new for this year for Remko and me is our desire to cook more. Michiel and Sue gave us a whole meal as a present, with all the ingredients as well as five new recipes, an appetizer, an appetizer drink, and a bottle of wine. It was a little too large to do all at once, so we split it in half and took a picture of the prettiest dish, the salad. That night we also enjoyed a cheater's creme brulee that worked really well. Tonight we had round two, with pancakes, ratatouille, and homemade applesauce. Yum, yum, yum!