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!