... Year, that is. And Happy New Year to you all!!
It has remained cold. Surprise. Our workouts at the fitness center have had an extra plus - after the sauna, we walk out onto the terrace and rub down with fresh snow. To tell the truth, I'd never have believed some years ago that I'd find that pleasurable, but don't knock it till you've tried it. Or, don't knock it till you've been here for a forever and then tried it.
This time between Christmas and New Year has been pretty low key. I've finished one book and read another, Werner's continued working on the stair rail. And we planned our New Year dinner with the usual crew. This year we were too late getting tickets for some performance or another so we opted to eat in and fill the in-between time with games. What fun!
Decorations included a Chimney Sweep for good luck. The origins of the chimney sweep as a good luck charm are unclear, but if your chimney is clean then your house won't burn down. That's luck enough for me!
And Chimney Sweeps still have a strong guild and union here. Laws require inspections every other year and our Sweep comes around in his traditional garb - the black suit, golden buttons and white neck scarf. Charming, of course, though probably more necessary in earlier times when many roofs were made of straw and all the heating was done with wood and those sparks could set off some conflagrations.
Dinner was cheese fondue. On Lee's recommendation we got an electric set so it wouldn't burn in the middle, but you still have to prepare it on the stove.
Can you believe, these folks in Europe who invented fondue (or at least our local crew) have never considered dipping fresh veggies or apples in the yummy cheese? Boy, did our friends have something to learn. Boy, did they love it!
All the bread and apples and brocolli and cauliflower and carrots disappeared and after a sigh and a Schnapps, we brought out the cards and taught them to play "31". Since these folks are serious card players, I had hardly finished explaining the rules before they were playing like pros. Ulli of course started pre-empting the goal of 31 so we had to institute a new rule - no knocking in the first round! The only complaint was there wasn't enough time to play! Off to the theater and the fireworks!!
We shared our filled doughnuts (Berliner), something else for good luck (can't ever have enough good luck) with the local cops who were there to be sure order was kept (thank you!), had a toast to the New Year, and watched others throw fire into the sky to scare off all the evil spirits. The evils should be suitably scared because we made a lot of noise.
No comments:
Post a Comment