MERRY CHRISTMAS

One Hour to go here in Germany and it will be CHRISTMAS DAY. We've just said goodnight to our darlings Glenda and Tom who have gone to the apartment round the corner to sleep!

We've had a lovely day. Relaxing, talking, shopping, walking - not necessarily in that order - Oh... and did I say eating!

I am feeling much better, but now will take myself off to bed and look forward to a happy day tomorrow with Glenda and Tom.

Thanks for your prayers that I would feel better. I AM FEELING BETTER. Your prayers have been answered.

P O O R M E ! ! !

I'M SICK


JUST THE COMMON COLD BUT OH SO MISERABLE


LIKE PAT I WANT TO SAY "OH LORD......"

THE CHRISTMAS BLUES !

I really felt flat yesterday. I think we've been so busy and yesterday was the first day we could actually try and have a day off, but we started the morning helping Johanna clean the large hall at the Church!

Then it hit me the kids had been and gone and I've started to really miss them terribly. It was a whirlwind 36hr visit from them. I know this sounds silly as we will see them again on Sunday. But that just seems forever away! They're just so gorgeous and lovely to have around. Family.....ah, so very special.

And of course it's Christmas and I'm talking to the family in Australia and hearing what they are all up to and we're not there! Jocelyn will spend Christmas with Justin's family in Canberra; Tim and Amy will spend Christmas with Amy's family and then Heidi and Adrian in the evening; all my family will be together in Perth (and this doesn't happen very often). Dad is in hospital and not likely to come out, so that is on my mind as well. He is 84 years old and has become very frail. May God in his mercy take him home to heaven soon. Roger's family will all be together in Sydney and that will be quite a gathering.

So here we are in Schopfheim! I am continuing to do lots of baking - to give away of course. I love it. But it's deciding what to bake that is the problem for me! So today I am feeling better, but still very nostalgic.

May I take this opportunity to wish all my lovely friends who read my blog a wonderful Christmas and a great 2008. May you take time to remember God's great sacrifice in sending his beloved son Jesus into the world to give us a reason for living. To me this is truly amazing and wonderful and I thank God each day for the many blessings he gives me.

MOSAIC CHRISTMAS PARTY

We had a great celebration last night at our Mosaic Christmas Party with around 33 people present. We began with a 'get to know you' game the Laura organized and it was a lot of fun. One of the questions was 'Someone who has never had a White Christmas'. There were only 2 of us who hadn't had a White Christmas!

Here is Meredith, Malory, Laura, Marieke and Patricia comparing notes.

















Here's Nolan with the kids - Clara, Kasey, Kenny and Paschal. They were singing Jingle Bells.
Nolan is an absolutely amazing guitar player.

















Butch and Connie visiting from Jacksonville in Florida (Aaron's parents) and Patti

















Edda and daughte Fauzia

Amanda is first up for the White Elephant gift.

Christian is hosting!

OH WHAT FUN ! ! !

DINNER WITH FRIENDS

Why did I take a photo of just the table?!! Goodness only knows. But we did have our lovely friends Bernhard and Lorraine visit us in Schopfheim on Saturday and they stayed for dinner. I think I took this photo just before I called them into dinner! We always have the most delightful time with them and Saturday night was no exception. We had lasagna and salad with garlic bread and a Sticky Mandarin Pudding with Maple Syrup. Great wine as well!

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE

Well, here it is, completely dominating the loungeroom! Ready to be decorated. Now, you must realize that we either gave away, or left most of our decorations in Australia. I must also tell you that I keep sending the lovely German decorations we are given by friends to our family in Australia. So when it came to decorating the tree........

..... but Roger always has a good shot at it. The tassel decorations come from Japan! Roger then discovered tinsel in France (you can't buy it here in Germany). Australian's can't have a Christmas tree without tinsel (well, not at least these Aussies). This was taken during the day with the Christmas lights on, but you can't really see them. We will make another attempt some other time (maybe when the kids come back from their galivanting around Austria and Prague).

ARRIVAL OF GLENDA AND TOM

Yes, here's the gorgeous couple having a Gluwein in Loerrach at the Christmas Markets! It was/is very cold so they rugged up accordingly! A secret - they didn't finish their Gluwein (but at least they tasted it). We all agree it's not for us!

And of course the boys just had to have a beer for old time's sake! Here's to US ! ! !

CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW MORNING

Y E H ! ! !

Glenda and Tom arrive tomorrow morning. I can hardly wait. I'm trying to get highly organized, but it's not working as I'm all churned up in the stomach and I don't know what to do next!! I mean, as if they'd notice that the house is spick and span, the dinner is cooked for tomorrow night, the washing and ironing has been done, letters written, etc. How very silly of me!

We leave early tomorrow morning to get the train to Loerrach and then our dear friend Aaron is kindly driving us to Zurich to pick up our darlings! They are suppose to come in at 8.15am. They would have landed at Frankfurt airport early Tuesday morning and then have to wait for their connecting flight to Zurich. I know they are going to be exhausted when they arrive. I'll have to hold my tongue. Now that will be hard!

They are with us for 36 hours, then we will take them back into Basel to catch the train to Zurich where they will stay overnight then fly to Austria and onto Prague. It's going to be freezing for them as the temperatures have been rather warm in Melbourne.

Roger is at his second Choir Concert tonight in Basel, so this will give me an opportunity to get some last minute things done. I'm on track, so that's a plus!!

Hopefully I will be able to post some lovely photo's of Glenda and Tom in the near future.

It's raining like crazy here. If it was just a little colder it would be snowing! Ahhhhh!!

Christmas Decorating in Progress

Aren't they SO cute! This was the easy part. Keep watching for the

Christmas Tree (Roger got a little CARRIED AWAY!!) and all that goes with decorating at this time!

Visit of St Nikolas

This is a yearly occurrence at this time of the year, especially somewhere like Schopfheim that has a real community feel about it. Anyway, after waiting and watching all day to see if St Nikolas would make an appearance at our door (and I had some home baked goodies ready), I eventually gave up, locked the door and closed the shutters rather late at night. I was feeling very disappointed.

When we opened the front door the following day there were these chocolates (pictured - Mon Cherie) hanging from the door!

We happened to pass our neighbour this afternoon coming home from Basel and he asked if we'd had a visit from St Nikolas! Then we put two and two together! Heinz had the biggest smile on his face. But he missed out on the home baked goodies. I'll just have to sneak them over to his front door! It could become quite a fun game actually!

FREIBURG CHRISTMAS MARKET

My lovely friends - Maria, Sue and Jayne

Do they look cold or what?!! It was freezing I can tell you. Thursday 29 November I left home rather early to meet these lovely ladies at Basel Badisher Bahnhof for a trip on the train to Freiburg (1 hr away - but boy did the time fly!). We found out that our ticket covered us for the trams in Freiburg, so we were pretty pleased about that. So we arrived in Freiburg around 10am and made our way to the Christmas Markets. Actually we couldn't stay outside too long as it was so cold! Our hands and feet started to freeze! Gluwein is all the thing (sweet warm wine - which I don't really like) at Christmas time and each region has their own mugs which you can buy. They're very nice actually.

Jayne was insistent that we found a crowded place for lunch (means the food is good - of course!!), but we didn't. Still lunch was very yummy then we hit the markets again. When we'd had enough we went back to the Train station and caught a train that was already there. It happened to be a fast train back to Basel (and one that we shouldn't have been on!). The girls kept saying, "Oh, I can't remember this scenery, etc..... you sure we're on the right train". But we did arrive safe and sound back in Basel and nice and quick as well.

Needless to say I was rather tired when I got home - and the next day as well.

What a life!

Photo's from our Mosaic Retreat

I just wanted to share a few photo's with you from our trip to Adelboden, Switzerland.
This is a view from the Chalet!
Just as you pictured Swizerland eh?


















Roger tucking himself in before reaching to the ground for a big snowball!

Nolan will be ready with his before Roger has time to look around!


















Amanda and Patti make an appearance, but are still close to the door!

Sarah all rugged up.

Roger with another snowball!

THE WEEK THAT WAS

I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of my week. I wish I'd been able to have a lie in this morning but it just wasn't to be. The old brain started waking up rather early!

Monday - Went hiking with the girls from Basel (on the train at 8.15am!). Back home by

1.20pm and spent the afternoon preparing for Dinner.

Alina and Cyprian, our lovely young Polish friends

came and had dinner with us. Hungarian Goulasch

and Sticky Date Pudding.

Tuesday - Madly trying to get a parcel off to Tim and Amy before Roger went off to Choir. Posting in France is so much cheaper so Roger cycles over there after Choir to post letters. I then spent most of the day continuing to write Christmas letters.

Wednesday - an early morning Skype call from David and Sue Ridley was a delight for us both. Then I received a phone call from an Aussie friend here Sharyn who is 38 weeks pregnant. I hope to visit here some time next week.

Then it was rush, rush, rush as we were expecting David, Simea and Lia Gut for lunch. This is our Youth Pastor from German Church. We told them to come early as they had to leave early afternoon so Lia could sleep. We had a wonderful time together - as always.

In the afternoon I continued letter writing.

Thursday - I was trying to draw money out the bank!! The Aussie dollar is not doing well at the moment, so I didn't want to draw too much out. But in the end, I couldn't draw any out, so I went back to the bank and put a cheque in! Now we wait for it to clear! It's always difficult at the end of the year. Money dries up!

Did some shopping and tried to get organized for Friday, knowing I would be limited in time, but that didn't work. Our neighbours invited us in for schnaps at 4pm and we enjoyed a lovely 3 hours with them - speaking only Deutsch! Lots of charades took place I can tell you!!

Friday - went off to Centrepoint morning tea which is always a good place to meet new people. Then raced home to cook for my Girl's Night. I only had a slight idea how many would be coming - between 6 and 8! Not too bad really. Anyway, late in the afternoon I received 2 phone calls and I was very discouraged. (Actually I was a bit cross with myself feeling like this - like poor me, I've done all this work and people cancel at the last minute!!). But I recovered and 4 of us had a lovely evening together.

Saturday - now we sit in our loungeroom listening to the radio being streamed over the computer from Australia about the election. Quite boring really, but we're doing it anyway. Will report on a lovely Saturday next week.

P U M P K I N S ! ! !

I LOVE PUMPKIN!


I AM NOT ABLE TO BUY GOOD PUMPKIN !


I AM BEING DEPRIVED OF PUMPKIN !

THESE PUMPKINS ARE FAR TOO EXPENSIVE. THEY ARE ORNAMENTAL FOR PEOPLE TO DECORATE THEIR HOMES DURING HALLOWEEN!

AT THE SCHOPFHEIM MARKETS LAST WEEKEND I PAID 5 euro FOR A PUMPKIN. FOR MY AUSSIE FRIENDS THAT IS $8.00 !! IMAGINE THAT

I HAVE PUT IT IN THE GARAGE TO AWAIT THE ARRIVE OF GLENDA AND TOM AND TO EAT IT AT CHRISTMAS TIME. (A BIT LIKE KILLING THAT FATTED CALF!)

MY ROGER

I just want to let you all know that I think this man is quite gorgeous!

MY SISTER IRENE

Hummm.......wonder what's she's playing???? "Old Rugged Cross" I bet? What do you think? Well, maybe I'll only take comments from my kids. They know exactly what her repertoire is. I think this really suits her. I wonder why she doesn't buy a piano for herself. It would help her to relax, and drive George (Irene's husband) mad!!!

I think this beautiful piano is in a home Irene is trying to sell in Perth, Western Australia.

Want to buy it then go to http://www.ijrproperty.com

THANK YOU GOD FOR A WONDERFUL LIFE

Time is marching on and it is a while since I've posted. We're just busy and having lots of fun being busy! I'll start from today and work back.

It's been nippy today. As we had been rather cooped up all weekend, Roger and I decided on a nice walk around our countryside in Schopfheim (in other words, up the hill, past the horse stables - no horses to be seen, all in bed!! - and then back through Schopfheim to do some shopping). It was very nice and also very quick!

I started on my Christmas mail today. Method in my madness. I want to be organized this year and I don't want to be freaking out at the last minute like last year. Plus, it's the weather for writing letters - cold and wet. Might even be in for some more snow this week. If so, I'll share some pictures.

On the weekend we were on an overnight trip with 9 of our Mosaic Team. We went to a place in the middle of Switzerland, arriving around 2.00pm. It was snowing, which of course was a real treat for us all. We had lunch, settled in and then took to the snow for a good old snow fight. I just love them. Lots of fun. We ate, drank tea/coffee, played games, talked, ate, watched a video and generally had a lot of good time together, did I mention we ate? We left for home around 2.00pm Sunday. We all agreed it just wasn't long enough. Photo's coming when Nolan sends them to me!!

We are continuing to meet lots of lovely people and form good friendships. We are particularly enjoying the Centrepoint (English club in Basel) Friday morning teas as there are so many interesting people turning up to them. It makes Friday a busy day for us as we are continuing with drinks and nibbles at the Galerie Friday from 5pm till around 8pm. We try to get that 8.35pm train from Basel SBB which gets us home by 9.15pm!!

Have had some lovely hikes with the hiking group on a Monday morning. The weather has been rather pleasant for hiking actually. I've met a lovely friend who is from Basel. Her name is Christine and she loves Australia. (One of my dreams was to meet someone that lives on the Rhine River in Basel! Christine is that person!! I haven't been to her home yet, but she promises me a visit).

We've done heaps of entertaining. Just love it. I think it's one of my favourite things. Having people share the beauty of Schopfheim and our little home, and of course great cooking. Our good friends who are based in Paris but are currently in the USA for 5 months managed a visit as they had a conference in our area. We spent a Saturday with them. We talked and talked and talked. We just love them to bits. It's great to have special people we can share ideas with and 'chew the fat' with!

Our special friends Bernhard and Lorraine came out a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon. We went on a short hike together then came home and ate food together. We love these friends and always enjoy our times together.

There are so many special things about living in Schopfheim. Our neighbours are a real treat, and the longer we stay here, the better we get to know them. It's always lovely to see so many children around the place and tonight our friends Johanna and Juro called in with Juro's St Martin's lantern. Very cute. Should have taken a photo but didn't. Sorry about that.

The lady upstairs has been playing musical plants in the garden. Now you see it here, now you see it there!! It breaks my heart but I must laugh and not cry!

Winter has come early this year. We had a small amount of snow last week, but it didn't stay on the ground. They are promising more snow this week with temps -6C to 2C in the middle of the week. I won't feel much like going out, but Wednesday is a VERY busy day for us both. I have my Deutsch conversation with Eliane then we are hoping to make contact with Sue, a young lady in Stetten whose mother owns a Korean Restaurant, then in the evening we are wanting to go to a book club meeting. We bought the book Restless by William Boyd. I have read it and Roger has just started. It sure was a good read and I highly recommend it. I have never been to a book review before so this is a new experience for me.

Now I must go. I have dinner to cook (Shepherd's Pie on this cold night) and then more letters to write. My darling is at a couple of meetings and won't be home until after 9pm.

All in all I'm a very happy little possum!!!!!!!

Gaynor's Girl's Night

I wanted to introduce my lovely German girlfriends to our Texan Ladies. Cheryl and Donna Kay were able to come for the evening. Lori was hard at work entertaining the Mosaic Kids! So, here is Marianne, Cheryl and Donna Kay in our lounge room.

Christine and Eva came for the first time. Eva lives in Schopfheim. Also Laura in the picture.

My gorgeous friend Johanna who lives in Schopfheim with her husband Erik and son Juro. They take us to Church in their car each Sunday. We try to get together every now and then to lighten up and play a game. Erik is on holidays from teaching this week, so we plan to see them on Wednesday. They are very special friends, and sometimes we neglect them because we become so busy!!

TEXAN NIGHT 20 OCTOBER

Don't they look the part? Sue and Zipporah hamming it up! Great gals!

Johnny and Fritz

Go the line dancing! I think I have 2 left feet!

Juro looking the part! Looks like he's collecting Texan flags!

David and Tom doing a skit! So much fun and lots of laughs

Our Texan Night was a great success. We held it at Alte Kanzlei in Riehen. A fantastic venue which worked well for us all. Lots of laughter, information, Texan food and of course line dancing to finish the night off with a BANG! And yes, I think we all went home rather tired! I thought it would be great to do another one this coming Saturday - lots of people missed out on a great and happy evening.

A special visit this week

An email from my niece Bethany who is travelling with her husband Jeremy saw their arrival at our place on Wednesday evening around 7pm. I met them at Schopfheim Railway Station. What an absolute joy to see them and what a special, special time we had together. They are travelling all over Europe and other parts of the world for 4 months. Here they are in our kitchen.

The morning they left for Luzern (freezing outside and before we put our coats on!). Outside our home.

Here they are setting off down the street from our place.

Just about to arrive at the railway station. They are an amazing pair and it was just wonderful to see them both and have them in our little home for a couple of nights.

Closing thoughts on our holiday in France

This is long overdue, and if it was someone else, they would probably let it go as it is now 12 days since we came back from our holiday in France. But I want to share some thoughts with my lovely blogging friends and also readers of my blog.

• Helpful people we met on the train
• Complete strangers at the railway station on our arrival at 10.30pm who made a phone call on their mobile phone to order a taxi for the 6 of us.
• Helpful and friendly bus drivers (we took the bus a lot)
• A wonderful lady at the Tourist Office in Agde who suggested we visit Montpellier - a great piece of advice for us, which we took up!
• A friendly smile goes a long way and breaks down the language barrier!
• A nice young man at the railway station in Paris who gave us some help and a good map of Paris!
• Excitement on the way home in Paris when police boarded the carriage on the train in which we were standing, dragged five men out and lined them up against the wall (why does excitement follow us around?!!)
• A fabulous and smooth ride home.
• Being home is a wonderful thing, even though the weather has now had a drastic temperature drop (thank you God for heaters!!).

Since being home we have realized just how important holidays are and that we must take them and make the most of them. It is best for us to go somewhere and just relax, rather than being on the move all the time.

A day in Montpellier

The Observatory enclosed in a large park with a good view over the city.
















The Aquaduct - an amazing construction and of course very old!

















There's always time for a coffee and sit down! We were also entertained by someone playing an accordian. Very popular instrument in Europe.

















One of the delightful small streets in Montpellier. Here we pause for lunch (quiche) and beer!! Cheap meal.

















This picture Roger took does not do this building justice. It had been hand painted with people in the windows and scenes. Quite beautiful and breathtaking. We both just loved walking the streets of Montpellier and would love to visit again and stay there. But I don't think that is likely to happen. There's just too much else to see!

A Day in Sete (France) with Roger, Ilona and Sarah

Sete is famous for it's Wednesday markets. You know markets - sometimes a lot of 'rubbish' but the fruit, vegetable and fish market is fantastic.
Here are framed pictures of France. Very tempting, but not tempting enough!!


















One of the lovely streets in Sete. It was quite a nice day so there were many people sitting outside having coffee, etc.

















To see the fish was amazing (and rather smelly). We couldn't buy any as we were worried about carrying it around with us all day!


















We found a nice monument park, but it was rather a steep climb UP!!


















Here's one of the momunents at the top of the park.

HORRAH FOR HOLIDAYS - HORRAH FOR HOME ! ! !

Apologies to the faithful friends that check my blog regularly. The weeks 17-28 September were rather busy and time was not in my favour!

Roger and I went on holidays to the south of France to a place called Cap d'Agde for 10 days from 29 September. We went with friends Ilona and her 12 year old daughter Sarah. Ilona booked all the holiday, including travel, for us so we thought it was an opportunity too good to miss, plus we could share the costs.

We did have a bit of a stressful start, but that soon past!

Cap d'Agde is a Resort town on the Mediterranean Sea, so it was lovely for us to enjoy some warmer weather, though the sun didn't shine that much in the first week. It was cloudy, but not cool with temperatures around 22-25C each day. But we did not swim until the Sunday before we left, which was a great shame.

France is just beautiful, though the area in which we holidayed is best known for the lovely beaches, not the countryside, which was rather barren.

Our travel there involved 4 trains. We had to go into Paris and then were able to get a fast train from there to a place called Agde. As we didn't arrive at our destination until 10.30pm we had to get a taxi to the place where we were staying.

Just a few photo's to whet your appetite. More to follow soon

One day we took the bus into Adge which is a small town on one of many Canel's in the area.


















One of the lovely streets in Agde

















Many restaurants have a lunch special. We wanted seafood and decided to order the special of the day (having no idea what we were ordering!!)


















So...... here it is, a big bowl full of about 30 mussels which were slightly flavoured with garlic and some other spice!!

But you should have seen the look on our faces when the waitress brought the dishes to our table! We always seem to be having a good laugh about something.

It could have been worse! It could have been escargot!