Today I experienced a new tradition, First Sunday of Advent. For me it´s a quite new thing, in Finland I never really had anything special at that day. I can´t remember, if we had something like that when I was a child.
Now here in Switzerland, for my "new" family, Advent has been a small tradition in many many years, for them it means spending time together and doing something together, like Christmas decorations, cooking, eating etc. And I like the idea that even when childrens are getting older, they still have that tradition. Yesterday and today we baked different types of cookies. Maybe I can´t really say we, yes, I tried to help, but I´m not sure that did I do more harm than good :-) But it was fun. And my wife said that that´s not all, not even close, more cookies are coming before Christmas. Today evening we tasted some of those cookies with mulled wine, in Switzerland you would say, Glühwein.
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| Some winter decorations in our livingroom. - 22. November 2015 |
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| Cookies - 29. November 2015 |
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| Table decoration with Advent candles - 29. November 2015 |
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| Table decoration - 29. November 2015 |
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| Glühwein - 29. November 2015 |
For me, Advent tells also that Christmas is coming soon, and that means in our family, like in many other families, Christmas presents. And that´s always hard for me, what should I give to my wife ? Of course nothing too expensive, but it should be also something useful. I can´t buy clothes, I´m very bad in that, I can´t even buy clothes for myself, so how could I buy clothes for someone else ? I can´t give jewels, because I´m also bad to choose something like that. Once I really nailed it with jewels, when I bought to my wife a pair of earrings and a necklace from Finland and they were also made in Finland, she´s wearing those a lot, so I think she likes them. But that was a lucky shot. I could maybe ask some hints of my wife´s sister, but I think that´s kind of cheating. I could easily give something like electronics stuff, gadgets etc. but my wife is not so interested about that. And it´s really not helping if my wife is all the time saying, that she doesn´t need anything... Luckily I found something small and nice from the Zürich airport few days ago, but even if my wife won´t read my blog, I can´t tell you yet what it was. But still I would like to give something else. I´m taking a German language school in Luzern twice a week, and there is lot´s of nice shops, I think I will find something from there. Few weeks ago I saw something very nice behind the window of a small shop, but I was too slow to decide, because now it´s not there anymore, I think it was kind of a unique piece, and that was the only one :-( But I won´t give up yet, I still have time. Tomorrow i will go again to Luzern, and I will find something !
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