Last Sunday we got out of the house in the morning for some time in the snow! Our friends invited us to join them in Gurnigel with their 2 boys that are close to our boys ages. We had so much fun. I had received some very sad news that morning from a friend back home so in all honesty I wanted to curl up at home and cry but I was so thankful to get out and be refreshed. I ended up being the camera girl instead of sledding because I just wasn’t up for it. But it was super fun to watch everyone else and to yell “SETHHHHHHH” when he nearly tossed Owen off with every bump or curve. I won’t include those pictures. Yikes.  Are you as shocked as I am that God gave me 2 boys and a not so relaxed temperment?!  Yea, me too!

and as Seth and the boys slugged along on our old school sleds our German friends raced along on this speedy thing…it seems even their sleds are faster!

weary sledders after many daredevil stunts!

(this photo taken by Tim Ziert)

how’s that for sledding view?! I am confident this may be the best we ever see while sledding!! Stunning!

(this photo taken by Tim Ziert)

We headed back and had apple strudel and ice cream for lunch!  It may become a Sunday regular! It’s days like this that I don’t mind our church having an evening service.

A while back our friends Daniela and Miguel invited us over for brunch. Daniela is Swiss and promised to make us Rosti! We have had it from the grocery store and restaurants but I have never been brave enough to attempt it at home. It was such a treat. Daniela had a yummy spread of bread, jams, cheese and rosti with over easy eggs.

Basically rosti is a big plate of hashbrowns, only instead of stirring them to get them all crispy you press them into the pan and they kind of make a hashbrown cake. Cake isn’t the right comparison but you will get the idea. The Swiss don’t only eat rosti for breakfast they eat it for lunch and dinner as well. They top it with vegetables, cheese, cream sauces. You name it they probably have it. Seth has been known to order his with bacon macaroni and cheese on top.    Not the healthiest meal for SURE but a yummy winter comfort food.

After our delicious brunch we decided we better take a long walk to burn it off! We headed out in the chilly fog and enjoyed some fresh air.

Jackson begged a ride in the stroller with Anna

every village has a hay bride and groom right?!

For those of you that may want to try to make this here is Daniela’s recipe!

Rosti

800g (1.75 lbs)  potatoes, not too firm ones, cooked (preferably the day before –> left over jacket potatoes!), peeled, grated

1 tsp salt

3 big spoons of oil or butter
———————————
heat oil or butter in the frying pan

put salt over the grated potatoes

give the potatoes in the melted butter or hot oil, lower heat, stir and fry for app. 15 min

push it down a bit to form like a cake

put a plate on as lid. the idea is that the plate presses down the whole potatoe cake. fry for 5-10 min.

when theres a brown crust, turn it over with help ot the plate and fry the other side for 5-10 min.

serve with fried eggs.

even better: fry 150g bacon cubes before frying the potatoes and mix them in.

Well the bags are mostly packed and the house is *mostly*clean. We head out tomorrow for Texas/DC. When we debated last year on when to go home and decided to save extra vacation time to do a longer trip now I was bummed to not go home for Christmas. But now that the time has come, I am so thankful we saved Seth’s vacation time and that we have long enough to recover from jetlag, see both sets of parents, some of our siblings, nieces, nephews and friends!  The trip with the boys is a bit daunting but I must admit that at this point we are both too excited to be thinking about how the boys will do. And may I unashamedly say that after hosting 26 house guests over the past 14 months that I am so excited to be a guest!!!! The thought of our moms cooking and me not cooking enjoying is so exciting!!!

Before we hit the road or rather the runway I wanted to post a few pictures from Jackson’s Christmas programs…one was a quick 5 songer at the preschool Christmas market on Sunday…

T

jack with his teachers, Jamie, Fatima and Rachel

The second program was the church nativity that the kids acted out. Jackson started out as a shepherd and midway through the service before he went on stage I noticed he had talked the teacher into letting him “upgrade” to a wiseman!  It was a family service and the irony of it is that these family services are the toughest on families. Owen in particular. He just can’t sit for 1 hour and 45 mins plus. I peeled 4 oranges before leaving the house thinking I would sneak him a slice now and again to pacify him if things got desperate….he ate 2 oranges during the first song if this gives you any indication of how our evening went. We ended up slipping out before the sermon even began because Owen was beyond oranges, lights going off and on, and being held down and quiet.

shepherd turned wiseman

Last week my friend Nina and I set up a table at the Embassy Holiday Bazaar. I was pretty skeptical that we would sell much but we went into it knowing that at least we would have an afternoon out of the house to chat! A couple of months ago I was trying to get all crafty to sell crafts, it was fun but about 10 unfinished crafts into it I decided I should just focus my energies on baked goods and stocking stuffers. I thought I would include all of the recipes I used in case anyone is looking for some holiday treats or super cheap stocking stuffers!!

For the stocking stuffers I made homemade playdough…to give them a holiday twist I made 3 kinds-Cinnamon Spice, Peppermint and hot chocolate.  I used this recipe that I have shared before and I added to it food coloring (red for the cinnamon and green for peppermint) and spice or extract, cinnamon or peppermint respectively. For the cocoa playdough I used this recipe. The cocoa does the work of coloring and adding scent so no need to add anything else! I threw in a few sprinkles while I was cooking it to give it some holiday bling!

I bought a few silicone molds and made red and green sidewalk chalk…Easy, peasy and kids love it! I used this recipe for the homemade chalk.

For the baked goods I made Cranberry Orange Bread. You can find the recipe here.

And Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. You can find the recipe here. I loved this recipe because it yielded 3 loaves and with the smaller foil pans I was able to get 4 out of one recipe!

For cookies I chose to use this recipe for Pumpkin Gingersnaps that I posted earlier in the fall. I think the name is a bit decieving…they are more like pumpkin snickerdoodles.

And to top off the sweets I made Mint Oreo Truffles and regular Oreo Truffles. I used this recipe but I know there are lots out there. I actually never got to try one but they sold out first and people kept coming looking for them.

I sold out and only wished I had made more!!  And for those of you that may be rolling your eyes thinking I must be overloaded with free time…I am not!  My baking day happened to be the day I took my grandmother to the airport. We got stuck in Zurich far longer than expected and when I did get to baking Owen cheerfully stripped the bottom half of the Christmas tree and cleaned the bathroom with the toilet bowl brush.  It was a comical scene around here! So roll up your sleeves and make something festive. It’s good for the soul…even if it isn’t good for the Christmas tree!!