Boston to Geneva (to San Francisco): December 2013

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

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!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

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!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

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!