Lot's of Pic's - Elaine's Visit & Thanksgiving

Here is Elaine, Susan's mom, in Luzern along the water near one of the old bridges. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves walking around and seeing the old city wall w/ turrets.
Here is the family in front of one of the stores on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. If you want to do some shopping, the Bahnhofstrasse is the place to go (and all the side streets around it). There are your high end shops (Gucci, YSL,Tiffany's, Bucherer, etc...) and your regular people shops (H&M, Zara's, Claire's - is there a city in the world that doesn't have a Claire's?, etc...) and restaurants and goodies in between. Something for everyone and people watching is an art form.
OK - Make a guess - Is it a big chicken or a little turkey? It was really good!!! We had Thanksgiving on Sat. night (Elaine & Susan were in Lugano, Switz. on Thurs/Fri) with Matt & Jill (IA) and Randy & Ashlee (CT) - also KPMG transferees. We had the "bird", mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, corn, cranberries, pumpkin and apple pies - halfway thru the meal someone commented "I feel so American right now - it feels good." The only "swiss" item on the table was the bread. It was lovely and soooo tasty! I don't know that we have appreciated a Thanksgiving meal like that in a very long time - Thank You Lord!!! And not only that but there was college football on TV (with time changes, games start around 6pm and go 'til the wee hours) and Jill, once again, beat the guys at Texas Hold'em. There is justice in the world. :)
Here is Mom with the girls at the Rhein Falls - largest falls in Europe (approx. 1 hr from the house). It was cold and misty but cool to see. Walked all around and then took the ferry boat back across the river at the base of the falls. Although you can land on the large rocks in the middle of the river/falls by boat, I (Susan) was/am still recovering and put the halt on getting wet in the middle of the river in the cold - just didn't sound like fun. We will have to go back and do it in warmer weather!
Here is Mom with the girls at the Zurich Christmas Mart - I'll have to add more pic's of that later. We went on Fri. night after she & I returned from Lugano and enjoyed looking at everything lit up. We checked out the Swarovski tree with it's thousands of crystal ornaments, checked out all the crafts and goodies, sampled the Gluvein and then headed down the Bahnhofstrasse to see all the Christmas decor there as well.

We really enjoyed Mom's visit and for me, Susan, it was the first time I've spent a lot of alone time with her since before I had kids. While the girls were in school during the day, we would go exploring - Luzern, Zurich, Wadenswil - and then we went on an overnight to Lugano (Italian part of Switz.) and Bart worked from home Fri. so he could do kid duty. We enjoyed our trip and it really felt like we were somewhere else. Once you go thru St. Gottard/San Gottardo you enter the Ticino region and suddenly the architecture/language/landscaping are different. And you are greeted with Buon Giorno instead of Gruezi - and then some speak Italian & English, some speak Italian & German - so at least we were able to do what we needed. I think we left a lot of smudges on the windows of all the shops - some of the loveliest couture/designer things I've ever seen in person - it was fun. And Mom went back with 2 pairs of shoes - she was thrilled! Upon hearing my cough in the cab, the Italian cabbie promptly rattled his recipe off for a cure - we'll see if it works - I have woke up less tired the last couple days so it may be doing the trick - jury is still out.

So Mom had to go back yesterday. I took her to the airport and saw her off - miss her already. It was so nice to have a visitor and especially family. We are off to a busy week already. We put up our tree last night and today I am in search of lights for it so we can decorate. Must make the girls Nutcracker costumes and must catch up on all I've not done since being sick and having Mom to visit. And speaking of Nucracker ballets - if any of you are going to the Sacto. Nutcracker production this year, our dear little friend, Rebecca Hambalek, is one of the Klara's. Give her some applause from us - she is the daughter of Frank & Ruthie whom we stay with in Fresno each year.

Well, I'm off to buy a sewing machine today (I hope). Love and Holiday wishes to all.