Maisie's Favorite Things

We were handed some pretty crazy weather to deal with over the Holiday so things didn't necessarily go as planned but we made the best of it.  

We had dinner with our friends the Williamsons and then went to Bryant Park to watch the ice skaters:

 We shopped for Muppets:

 Maisie designed this beauty, Joyce, at FAO Schwartz (thanks to a generous gift from Grandma and Grandpa Hinson in Florida)!

We went to the M&M store which I'm still struggling to understand.  An entire store devoted to M&M souvenirs.  Really?  Is there that great of a demand for M&M thimbles and spoons?  

We even survived the Blizzard and played in the snow with Uncle Kevin.  This is how his roof terrace looked after the snow stopped!

 And here we are forcing our way out the front door:

Maisie even got the chance to show off her tree decorating skills for a second time.  Here we present Georgina:

And the Christmas Peeps Wreath:

Oh, and they have this other tree in NYC at Rockefeller Plaza.  

That's about it for our Holiday photos.  I keep getting caught up in the moment and forgetting to document/photograph everything but we had a great time and came home with lots of happy memories.  Happy 2011!

Roselle

Even though we're going to New York to spend Christmas with my brother, we couldn't resist getting a little Christmas tree.  We started the tradition last year of naming the tree so this year we present Roselle.

Maisie made up a little poem for her:  

Roselle, Ma Belle, Sapin de Noël 

which means Roselle my beautiful Christmas Tree.

Here she is with just lights:

And here she is fully decorated:

Nice work, Maisie!

We had quite a bit of snow a couple of weeks ago but then came the rain and washed it all away.  Here are a couple of nighttime shots of the snow when it was really coming down.  Not great but we still get so excited when it snows so we thought we'd share the joy.

This is the snow in our courtyard:

And this is the view from our guest room window:

OK, time to snuggle up on the couch and watch our favorite Christmas movie, ELF!  Hope you're enjoying the Holiday Season wherever you may be.

Bern Onion Market

Every year on the third Monday in November there is an Onion Festival in Bern.  I went with a friend after we dropped our girls at school.  It was a cold, slightly wet day but it didn't stop the locals from enjoying their event.  I forgot my camera but I took a couple of photos with my phone and since I'm tired of looking at the Halloween post I thought I'd share them with you.

The market basically consists of stall after stall of these onion/shallot/garlic braids.  Some with dried flowers and herbs on them, too.  This particular vendor jazzed it up with a garlic hat.  I love it!

I've never seen so much garlic in my life.  I thought it was silly to have so many people selling the same thing but by the end of the day most of the stalls were empty!  You could also buy onion soup, onion tarts, onion/garlic spread, onion jelly, dried onion flakes (do I sound like Forrest Gump?)...pretty much anything you can imagine made from onions!

I bought this little beauty

and have already used an entire head of garlic.  So good!

Happy Halloween

We had a super fun Halloween party last night!

Here we are in our scary costumes

We worked hard for three days getting ready.  We made our own piñata and Maisie made the Pin the Hat on the Witch game.

We pulled together the few decorations that we brought with us to Switzerland (why did I think I wouldn't need any of my Holiday decor while I was here?) and made some spooky snacks.

Of course we had to play Wrap the Mummy and all of our favorite games

 a pumpkin masterpiece 

Happy Halloween!!

The Goods

Our first Halloween package came from my Mother.  She sent purple and green jello mix (for a game we'll play at our party), creepy spider webs, some white paper sacks for luminaries that Maisie has started to decorate, and some medical bills I keep forgetting to pay....SCARY!

Our second Halloween package came from the Myklebusts.  They sent Maisie a great October outfit including these funky striped tights and a skull shirt (that she's wearing under her coat).  It was so cool that Maisie insisted on wearing the get-up on our first day in Edinburgh, Scotland (more on that later).

Our third package came from the Halloween experts, the Lunt family!  Check out this loot...gummy fangs, pumpkin peeps and scary skulls just to name a few.  OK, the book about the Brooklyn Bridge isn't Halloweeny but people died building it so that makes it spooky, right?  

Thank you so much!!  

I know that postage to CH is ridiculous so I owe you all BIG TIME!  You have helped make our Halloween as American as it can be!

Now, to get ready for the festivities next week (if I can tear myself away from Mad Men!).  Anyone have any tips on how to make a piñata without using a balloon?  I want to make a squarish Frankenstein head.  Will a box work or will that be too hard to break open?

Chestnuts

Last week we went to a town called Fully (pronounced foo yee) to collect chestnuts.  They have a beautiful forest of chestnut trees and you're allowed to collect anything that has fallen to the ground.  You have to wear gloves though because the casings are dangerous, ouch!

Below is a shot of the forest.

 And here is Maisie and her friend Francesca looking for chestnuts.

We gathered a nice sack full but now I'm not sure what to do with them short of roasting them on an open fire.  Anyone have any good chestnut recipes to share?

Climbing Club

Maisie has also joined the Climbing Club after school.  They meet at a local Gym and have climbing instruction for an hour each week.  It sounded fun on the write-up but then, when I went to pick her up on the first day I was so jealous!  What a cool climbing wall!

There is Maisie down below (in the bright blue shirt and black pants) just finishing her climb.  Hopefully I'll catch her in action next week.