Nothing but a Morning Star: January 2020

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Ice Castles

We went to the ice castles again this year! And well, it will probably be our last time for a while.

I don't want to seem all negative, but more so.... realistic. You see a lot of fun outings and photos on my blog and I want you to know that not every thing always works out perfectly.

The ice castles are magical and all but first of all, we just have too many kids (who were not in awesome moods) and it's so dang cold. But then the main reason: it's just SO crowded there. And everyone seems to be obsessed with taking photos of ever single icicle and not looking with their own eyes or stopping to explore and enjoy it. And listen, I obviously understand the desire to get pictures ;) but every space is clogged with people and their phones, stopping everyone so that they can get a shot. And when you've got little kids in thick snow gear and you're trying to maneuver through sand like snow that's up to your ankles and the little kids cry and want to be held and the older ones keep running off and getting lost and cookies are dropped in the slush and tears are shed.... the added crowds just make the whole thing very stressful.

But nevertheless! I got some cute photos. And not because I stopped everyone in some inch wide ice tunnel to get my instagram shot, but because I'm a master photog and you should all hire me. (I'm being a bit sassy here, sorry, this outing was just last night so the stress is still clearly shrouding me haha.)

On a more positive note, the art and craftsmanship that goes into these ice castles is amazing and awe-inspiring and it's worth braving the crowds for at least once in your life to experience it. Once you see them, you understand why there is such a crowd!

Celebrate a Country Day- Switzerland

It's that time of year again! Our annual Celebrate a Country holiday, which we celebrate every January. Picking which country to celebrate each year is something that I feel in my gut and this year, for whatever reason, my gut chose Switzerland. (or was it because my gut wanted cheese and chocolate...?)

Buck and I got in a real marital fight over his refusal to wear real lederhosen. My display table was way too big and I didn't have enough time or energy to make it look full and presentable. This year we also tried something new- we only invited adults and told them to leave the kids with a sitter. Over all this was the best idea ever, nobody would have enjoyed themselves with a million kids crying all around us. But this also meant that our kids went next door to their sitter and I did feel bad about not having them there- this is, after all, our family holiday. So next year I'll fix that. But I will say that our kids aren't too sad about all the left over chocolate and the stuffed mountain goat toy, so everyone wins.

We've known so many people through our years of marriage, it's hard to know who to invite without it turning into a massive packed party. So this year we focused on our neighbors, the ones who live closest to us (since we could also get crazy inviting the whole neighborhood, I had to draw the line somewhere!) And as you can tell, this was super hard for me because I don't want anyone to feel bad or left out but I also can't feed 150 people.

Okay, thanks for letting me get all of that out of the way. ;)

The celebration turned out great! Everyone brought a dish to share. We had lots of cheese, fondue, raclette, braided bread, rosti potatoes, museli, alpine macaroni, sausages, a swiss roll and obviously, lots of chocolate!

Buck's shirt represents our compromise.

I found non-alcoholic wine! haha It was a big hit. ;)

This is Raclette- you melt the cheese and scrap it off onto veggies and meats.

We also watched some yodeling and then learned how and tried it out together (which was HILARIOUS) and then learned about the Alphorn and tried that out, thanks to the cheap plastic alphorns that I randomly found online.