Merry Christmas!

Andrew and I arrived back to Switzerland on Monday morning from Jordan (much more to come on that in a separate post later this week!) and the three of us have entered full vacation holiday relaxation mode - hitting up the gym, sleeping in late, baking cookies, cooking dinners, drinking wine, and just enjoying each other's company.  Also, as I mentioned last week, Ryan and I exchanged or annual Christmas tree ornaments and below are this year's choices...

My ornament to Ryan -- "Noel" in French means Christmas

 Ryan was a tad indecisive in his ornaments and ended up buying the 3 ornaments above because they had a "Swiss flair" to them.

We will be spending Christmas morning at home opening the pile of presents (!) that is under our tree then we head to the mountains of Verbier to share a Christmas dinner and evening with our good friends and we will ski together the day after Christmas.

This is the first Christmas away from home for each of us, so we are missing being back home and spending time with our friends and family VERY much - however, we are finding ways to make it special and unique and it is comforting to know that at least the 3 of us can be together. So with that said, MERRY CHRISTMAS (or JOYEUX NOEL in French), to you and your family! We miss and love you all more than ever during this holiday season.

And if you find yourself with some extra time on Christmas, give us a call on Facetime to exchange some Christmas joy -- we would love to hear from you to brighten our Christmas -- just beware, you may find these faces on the other end!

Ready for the holidays!

After a hectic week of training and traveling to Chicago and Ryan's work Christmas party last night, I spent today relaxing, Christmas present shopping, and getting into the Christmas spirit.  We went and picked up a little Swiss Christmas tree and decorated it with ornaments. When we moved in together 3 years ago, we decided to make it a Christmas tradition to give a surprise ornament to each other every year that symbolized something unique about the past year. We slacked off last year (2012) since everything was still so busy with our move to Switzerland; but, I love our 2011 ornaments that we brought with us to Switzerland: I gave Ryan a key with a ribbon on it that said "2011, our first home together" and Ryan's ornament to me was the ring box that he put in the Christmas tree when he proposed. We haven't exchanged 2013 ornaments yet, but I'll be sure to share them when we do. In the meantime, Ryan found an adorable cat ornament for Pumpkin so that he could join in on the ornament exchange fun :)

I only have 2.5 more work days standing between me and my trip to Jordan and then the holidays! I can't WAIT!

Berlin weekend recap

Last weekend Ryan's friend hosted his 30th birthday party in his hometown of Berlin, so we took the opportunity to explore a new city with friends.  Before heading to Berlin, I didn't have many expectations, but I was very pleasantly surprised by our visit to this city.  Berlin has a distinctly edgy feel it, coupled with a unique history that creates in a melting pot of of funky styles, architecture, tourist sites, fantastic museums, creative food, fantastic shopping, and bustling night life.

In case you need a refresher on Berlin's history, after being significantly damaged during World War II, Berlin was separated between East and West by the Berlin wall.  The division created two very different "cities" which were heavily impacted by the political environment at the time.  The wall stayed up until it was taken down in 1989 and the city was reunited.  Walking around the city you get the feeling that Berlin's history has definitely contributed to its funky environment.  Its residents dress in an edgy style, there are a multitude of unique restaurants, museums cover the city, and the architecture is a mix of damaged buildings from WWII and new construction from various phases of pre and post-unified Berlin.  The city is also extremely cheap compared to Switzerland, we couldn't get over the prices -- kebabs for EUR 2.90, huge lunches for only EUR 25 a person, and EUR 60 a person for an amazing flat in the center of the city is unheard of in Switzerland.

We spent the weekend mainly doing walking tours around Berlin and viewing the sites, including the numerous Christmas markets that were set up for the holiday season.  The Christmas markets are basically stalls of vendors selling various gifts, trinkets, food, wine, and holiday decorations -- they were all over the city!

Berlin is famous for its late night kebabs

We found a little piece of Boston in Berlin! Who knew Dunkin Donuts existed in Europe

In front of the Bradenberg gate

Bradenberg gate

The Reichstag building

In front of the Reichstag

Enjoying the night life at Philipp's birthday party

Berlin's famous Christmas markets

At the Christmas market

Christmas market

Beautiful architecture

Berlin in Christmas spirit

Taking a break at the Christmas market

Happy Friendsgiving!

Last night we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at our apartment.  Chef Ryan cooked all of the traditional sides and we cheated again this year by purchasing roasted chickens from the market instead of turkey (cooked turkeys cost a few hundred dollars here, craziness!).  Guests brought a variety of appetizers, salads, sides, and desserts. Between the 11 of us, we still couldn't even finish half of the food because there was so much of it!

In attendance for the evening was an international group, we had friends from the US, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, and Germany.  It is always fun to introduce non-US friends to the tradition of Thanksgiving. Over the past two years we have found that the show-stealer is the sweet potato dish with roasted marshmallows, we get so many compliments on how much everyone loves it and never would have thought such a dish or combination of foods existed.

Happy early Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends! Hope you are excited for the short work week and are looking forward to celebrating the holiday with family and friends!

Our fireplace is decked out for the holidays

The boys enjoying a glass of wine while Giovanni cooks pasta to accompany the meal (note Giovanni's turkey hat and the Movember wine markers)

Digging into the meal!

Hi friends!

A few weeks of relaxation, reloading, and restarting healthy habits

Apologies for the radio silence on my end friends, nothing all that "blog worthy" has been happening in this household over the past few weeks. After a month of traveling, eating, and spending money non-stop in October, Ryan and I decided to designate the beginning of November as a time to detox from our crazy lives for a few weeks, translation: relax, reload, and restart healthy habits. We have been working out again and cooking new, healthy recipes at home. We have also been trying to accomplish as many of our wedding planning tasks as possible so that when ski season arrives we have lots of time to hit the slopes. November is a typically dreary, rainy month in Switzerland's cities; but, we don't mind because it gives us an excuse to relax (and play with Pumpkin) and it means that the mountain tops are piling up with snow!

After our relaxing early November, here is what is on the calendar for the upcoming months:

Next weekend: hosting our second annual Thanksgiving for American and non-American friends
End of November: headed to Berlin for the weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday and check out the city
Mid-December: headed back to the US for a few days for a work training and then headed to Jordan (!) to visit my brother (Andrew)
Week of Christmas: fly back to Switzerland with Andrew and it will be just the three of us this year for Christmas, sniff sniff :( But, we are excited to have Andrew with us and we plan to make the most of the situation by decking the house in decorations, opening presents, lounging in our PJs, going to the mountains in the afternoon to stay with friends and enjoying a big Christmas dinner and skiing.
Week of New Years: Ryan's brother and his fiance visit for the first week in January and there is lots of skiing on the docket! Ryan and I have approximately 2 weeks off over the holidays which will be fantastic!

What are your holiday plans? Are you taking it easy or going the adventurous route and doing some traveling?

All good things must come to an end... in Italy

Tomorrow is my first day back to work in Switzerland after a 3 week quasi vacation, I'm really not looking forward to getting back to the grind.  Fortunately, I was able to cap off my vacation with a long weekend trip to Italy with friends.  We went to the Piemonte region for the Alba International Truffle Fair. Our friends have been making the pilgrimage to this area of Italy each year to attend the fair and taste the amazing wine and food of the region.  The Piemonte region of Italy is known for its strong red wines such as Barbera, Barolo, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, Barbaresco, among others. The majority of the vineyards are small, family owned lots with stunning properties and views. With the fall season upon us, the vineyards spread into the horizon in an array of different colors, appearing like a patchwork quilt.  This description from Lonely Planet perfectly captures the essence of the area:

Sometimes referred to as ‘Tuscany without the tourists’, Piedmont’s undulating hills striped with vineyards bear more than a passing resemblance to its famous southern counterpart. But, inexplicably, many visitors to Italy bypass this picturesque region. The first trickle of tourism, stemming mostly from Switzerland and Germany, only began in Piedmont (Piemonte) a decade ago. Today it remains a haven of tranquillity where you can meander among the vines and sip wine in castle cellars.

In-the-know foodies seek out Piedmont’s white truffles, hazelnuts, chocolates, and vintages such as Barberesco, Barolo and sparkling Asti. Its abundance of fresh produce and artisan traditions inspired the Slow Food Movement here, which is based around savouring the simple pleasures in life – an art which the Piedmontese have perfected.

Piedmont will leave you wondering when the crowds will finally catch on – and being thankful that they haven’t, yet.

We spent the weekend visiting many vineyards and fantastic restaurants, which all offered the option to add shaved truffle to your meals.  An interesting side fact: one amazing 8 course meal cost us 25 Euros a person while the truffle shavings on top cost 45 Euros per person!

I just can't get enough of this scenery! Gorgeous!

Truffle selection at lunch - you choose which truffles you want, the server weighs them and tells you the price, and then the truffles are shaved on everyone's meals as they come out. Because truffles have such a strong flavor, we chose 3 truffles to last us through 9 people and 3 courses and it was more than enough! 

Smelling the truffles

Italians love their beef carpaccio, which to us Americans, resembled a raw hamburger patty with truffles on it... it tastes alright, but it is still slightly disturbing to our American-trained mentality of "must never eat raw beef"

Wine tasting at Cavallatto

The group at Cavallatto

Wine tasting room at Paolo Manzone, fabulous wines!

Our wine tasting "notes", check out the great prices

Ryan and our friends' dog checking out the cellar at Paolo Manzone

The guys with Paolo Manzone

The fun continues at dinner with more beef carpaccio, this time in the shape of a meat ball!

Checking out the cellars at Elio Grasso

Thousands of bottles, maturing in the cellar 

Wine maturing in oak barrels

Entering the truffle festival

The food and wine stalls at the truffle fair, each vendor is selling products containing truffles or regional specialties

Patchwork quilt views...

Italy, you sure have perfected "la dolce vita" (the sweet life)!!

Congratulations to our October-wedded friends!

Between Ryan and I, we attended the weddings of 3 sets of friends in the US this month.  Since our vacation days are limited, Ryan attended the first two weddings and I attended the last two weddings (we overlapped on the middle wedding) so that one of the two of us could still be present at every wedding.  Each wedding was unique, beautiful, and a complete blast! Best wishes to our dear friends in their marriages and thanks for inviting us to be a part of your special day!

Here are some pictures of the gorgeous couples for your viewing pleasure <3

Zach and Amanda in Michigan

 CJ and Alaina in Cape Cod

Heather and Ryan in Maine

"I love that dirty water.... Boston you're my home"

Last Sunday I flew back to the US to kick off a fabulous 2.5 week trip home in the US. My company pays the flights for Ryan and I to come back home once a year so we decided to plan our trip home in October so that we could attend the weddings of 3 sets of friends (that just so happened to be getting married 3 weekends in a row!).

Although I have come back to the US quite a few times since we moved abroad for work trips and long weekends, I surprisingly haven't stayed in the US for more than a week since we moved. I love Switzerland, but boy this past week has made me realize just how much there is nothing quite like "home".  So far this trip has been a perfect mix of fun times with our amazing friends and family, beautiful weddings, spectacular New England foliage and fall weather, several CLUTCH Red Sox and Pats wins to celebrate, and happy times catching up with Boston coworkers.

I'll eventually get around to posting some actual photos from the trip home; but, in the meantime, check out my Instagram feed to the right of my blog website to get a sneak peak at our adventures over the past week -- hmm, I just busted a rhyme ;)

I heart visits from loved ones

Since we live an ocean away, we don't get to see our families nearly enough as we would like and we have grown to really miss them - accordingly, one of my favorite parts of living abroad are visits in Switzerland from family and close friends. Its such a treat when they come to stay with us in Switzerland because it means uninterrupted quality time, without having to travel or organize our schedules and we get to introduce our family and friends to the Switzerland we have come to love.

Even though I have to work this week in preparation for flying to the US on Sunday for an extended trip home over the next few weeks, my mom and dad are visiting and it is wonderful to have them here to spend some quality time with Ryan and I and to do a little adventuring on the weekend and weeknights.... and I will admit that no matter how old I am, its always nice to be taken care of by mom and dad!

Over the next few months, several more family and friends have trips planned.  Thankfully our first Christmas and New Year's week away from home (cue the sad face!) will be brightened with visits from my brother Andrew and Ryan's brother Jamie with his fiancé, Holly. Who is next on the Swiss visitor train?! :)

Arrival dinner with raclette and a delicious homemade fondue! 

Chilling on the couch with my favorite people (+ cat)!

Watsu.... what? who?

My parents are visiting with us in Geneva this week (yay!) and with slightly rainy weather today, we decided to introduce them our thermal bath hobby.  We went to Lavey-les-bains, one of our favorite baths.  While there, a man in one of the pools approached us and told us that his students were studying to be "Watsu" teachers and asked whether we wanted to get a free session from a student as part of their training program.  Not knowing what a "session" consisted of, we agreed and what followed was an awkwardly amazing experience...  before I explain the details, below is the official description of Watus:

Watsu is a gentle form of body therapy performed in warm water. It combines elements of massage, joint mobilisation, shiatsu, muscle stretching and dance. The receiver is continuously supported while being floated, cradled, rocked and stretched. The deeply relaxing effects of warm water and nurturing support, combine with Watsu's movements, stretches, massage and point work, to create a bodywork with a range of therapeutic benefits and potential healing on many levels.

While the massage was certainly relaxing and unique, the poses were a bit, shall we say awkward... and then picture this happening in the middle of a crowded, public pool.  There were several points that I couldn't contain my giggles because I could hear Ryan laughing and I knew how ridiculous this little session must have looked to everyone else in the pool.  How awkward could it be you ask? Check out the below sample pictures off of Google to see for yourself...

So would I ever do a Watsu session again? Sure!  It was actually a really relaxing and gentle form of massage.  But, definitely in a more private setting :)