The snow was so heavy this morning that the ploughs could not keep up, but it was magical to walk through. Later in the day the skies cleared, and suddenly the mountains were visible. So majestic! The Matterhorn was still covered in cloud by the time the sun went down, but I think it will be on show tomorrow so I’m going to head up the mountain. Christmas Eve is the big day here, more than Christmas Day, and families have huge feasts and exchange gifts. This is only one of maybe 3 Christmases I have not spent with Jen and I miss her (and the poodle!) We have a tradition where each Christmas we pick a different country and cook food from there for lunch. Last year we made stuffed bao and Vietnamese salads, the year before that was a Japanese hibachi grill, and the year before that I think we chose China. Or Mexico. She has a better memory than me for these things 🙂 We will catch up on video chat on Christmas Day, but it isn’t the same. To get my fix of family time and connection I went to the local church, which was so packed with people there was standing room only. I don’t follow a religion, and my German is not very good, but it was a lovely thing to do and felt very Christmassy, and language is kind of irrelevant when people are gathered together to feel uplifted. And we sang Christmas carols. They were in German, but I recognised the tunes so went off piste and sang my little heart out in English.
