END of YEAR 2023

Seventh Day of Christmas 

We give thanks for the blessings of the past year, and ask the Lord for as many more in the New Year coming.

It’s time to curate that new year, in all categories, and ask for wisdom, guidance, and prosperity on those goals and schedules, so we don’t find the year over before we accomplish what we want to get done. We can make excuses or we can make progress. 

Silvester here. It will be noisy tonight. 

Goodbye 2023.

Sixth Day of Christmas

One More Crèche 

The Wise Men from the East are getting closer….

Fifth Day of Christmas

Unto Us

Fourth Day of Christmas

Unto You is Born a Savior

Third Day of Christmas

The Savior is Born

Second Day of Christmas

Stephanstag

Another day to rejoice and give thanks. 

Merry Christmas

Blessed HolyDay

The good news of great Joy. 

Advent 24 and Christmas Eve

Morning and Evening 

The DAY arrived. We went to our make-shift home/sanctuary/ with the added holiday elements concocted earlier. In the morning we observed the 4th Sunday in Advent with a devotion on the lighting of all the candles and their messages. After a flurry of kitchen activity and music practice and last preparations, all gathered for the festive dinner - preceded by the placing of Baby Jesus in the manger, with the recitation of Luke 2: 7, for the opening of Christmas Eve festivities. At dusk, the candles were re-lit, and we read, sang, and recited the message of “Peace, Peace, Precious Peace.” 

Even dinner was a combination of informal cold-platter supper and formal hot roast dinner. But it got eaten with gusto, so all is well. 






To you is born the Savior. Glory to God in the highest.

Advent 23

Last Day Scurryings

Cooking, baking, preparing food for tomorrow’s feast and festivities, Last minute checks on seating.  Music practice. 

Awaiting last arrivals. Transferring earlier arrivals to the old place, with more instructions on horse care, fire building, and idiosyncrasies of an old house. And then we pause, until tomorrow. 

More Crèches

Advent 22

Getting Ready

It’s a partial Creche, a mishmash, missing pieces - not the fine hand-carved wood set still boxed at home, but the Creche we will use is set out today, ready for our festivities on Sunday. On that day, to begin, the youngest child puts Baby Jesus in the manger, then we light candles and we celebrate. 

Advent 21

Phenomenal Box

Today we got a delivery 📦. A box. A most wonderfully-filled box. A deluxe box.  A creative box. 

From a very sweet sister. She and my mother made baked yummies, and packed a whole marvelous collection of fun things with them. We will enjoy very fine Christmas festivities. 

A sampling : 

American goodies. Wow. 

Not that wines and Nusstorte and home-made infused oils from the Swiss are not nice, too, of course. 

Enjoy your gifts, too. 

Advent 20

Creche 

Advent 19

Two

Since I am behind, I get two today. Sweet! 

We had a bit of sun today, enough to air out the greenhouse, and to encourage the buds on this plant. Maybe it will bloom for Christmas. It has pink flowers and would go nicely with my decor. 

Advent 18

O Tannenbaum

At least some people have Christmas trees. Beautiful ones. 

Maria’s artistry

Behold, a golden wren. 

Advent 17

The Third Sunday in Advent 

Rejoice! 

Sheep and goats; tares and wheat, until the final harvest day. 

Advent 16

More Crèches 

Advent 15

More Crèches

Candlelight Christmas Concert

And tonight is the annual Christmas story concert performed by numerous choirs, instrument ensembles, soloists, and two organs in the Fraumünster under thousands of candles. 

Advent 14

Christmas Letters

‘Tis the season to stuff scores of envelopes and stick on Christmas stamps (unless yours had a weight and destination that needed an odd combination of stamps). All but a few - because I didn’t guess right on how many letters I needed printed - are now in the mail, winging their ways around the world. They may or may not arrive by Christmas Day, but allow myself the full twelve days of Christmas. 

A portion of the piles

Advent 13

More Crèches 

Advent 12

Rain, Rain, RAIN 

All our beautiful wintery, Christmas-y snow is gone, melted by the relentless torrents of rain we have been having. Now, instead of gleaming frosty piles of white, we have high water warnings, avalanche dangers, leaks in roofs, rivulets in basements, and a soggy drippy pony that isn’t getting out for her exercise, because some us get drenched enough just doing chores. 

Wet, wetter, wettest, all wet.

Advent 11

Christmas Pretties

Advent 10

No Wreath with candles, 

because we were away, but see a beautiful handcarved Nativity set from the Krippestube in Wangen.

Advent 9

Tree?

When one is not getting a Christmas tree, and when one’s celebrating is going to be at someone else uninhabited house, and when one needs some festive spirit in the environs, then one gets creative. 

Behold, corkscrew branches sitting in a brass pot in a corner, bits and baubles brought, and leftover paper snowflakes from last Christmas found in a pile. 

Behold, Christmas-y-ness. 

Advent 8

Brewery Hotel

For overnight, we stayed at a well-appointed old family-run brewery-farm-hotel. The welcome in the rooms was two bottles of their house brew, a welcome surprise for some of us. And a bottle of water - welcome to me. 

Playground

Family burial chapel 

Brewery on left, hotel on right 

Beautiful Family portraits

Room welcome

Dinner - not mine. I don’t like eyeballs.

Much more appealing 

Good

Also good