The day after Thanksgiving Seth and I got busy putting up the tree and decorating the house so that everyone could enjoy it, particularly Nana before she heads back to Thailand. We have been playing Christmas music and getting in the spirit!  I kept our decorations minimal this year with only some non-breakable Christmas ornaments on the tree, some fresh greenery around the house and one non-breakable nativity. I am normally one of those people that thinks kids should just learn not to touch, yada, yada. But, in light of the fact that Owen is cherishing each moment of his fast approach to the big 2 I decided to just cool it this year with my goals and aspirations of beauty and perfection. And so, we are keeping it simple. And really simple is turning out to be quite beautiful. Who knew?!

On Sunday morning I set Nana and Jackson up at the dining room table by the Christmas tree to decorate a gingerbread house. From the get go I knew it was going to be a funny experience but one I hoped would make fun memories for both of them. I set them up and took Owen out for a walk once I knew they were okay for at least a few minutes. When I returned they were both covered in marshmallow creme and the house had collapsed a good 3 times already. The house is partially standing now and Jackson is quite proud of their work. Nana on the other hand has found me now on 3 occasions to discuss how various pastes and sugar glues might have been preferable.

Here are some funny pictures of them…

He was a bit skeptical of her ability to read the directions in Swedish!

crash #1!  Oh my!

“TA DA!”

Nana woke up this morning and said she had packed her bag and would be leaving today. Turns out it is $2500 to change the ticket (which we knew but spent an entire morning confirming for her sake) so she has decided to stay the remaining time. She is anxious to get back to Bangkok and get resettled now that the flooding has subsided but we will continue to entertain her at Swiss Chalet Kolb in the meantime.  Maybe we will move on to Christmas cookies next!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all of you! We hope that you all found yourselves with family and friends, with plenty to eat and much to be thankful for! We truly are so blessed.  There is a lot more I could write on the topic of being blessed but for now I will leave you with some pictures.

For Thanksgiving we had 2 couples over, both American girls married to Swiss men. We were excited to introduce them because we knew they both might enjoy having friends in their same boat.  As I mentioned in the last post, my cousin Nathan was also able to join us, along with Nana! So it was a full table!    We had puh-lenty of food! (we had so much food that last night we had friends over for a leftovers dinner! and then sent leftovers home with them 🙂 )

Menu

Appetizers

Stuffed Mushrooms

Brie Baked in puff pastry with raspeberry chipotle sauce

Prosecco with cranberry syrup

Apple punch

Dinner

Turkey

Cornbread stuffing

Green beans with shallots

Sweet Potato Casserole

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Cranberry sauce

Last but certainly not least…my mom’s Parker House rolls

Dessert

Apple Crumble Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Luckily our friends brought the mashed potatoes and the pies so I didn’t cook all of it!

PS- I find that when I am hosting a dinner or party I am terrible at taking pictures! Which I think means I am super busy enjoying it and that’s better than being distracted by the camera!