The Bards

Living in Switzerland, Christmas celebrations begin on Sunday, November 30th.  Where people will either buy or make an 'Advent's Kranz' -- a wreath of pine fronds with four candles, pine cones and ribbons which are placed in the center of the dining room table.  You light the first candle on the fourth Sunday before Christmas.  The following Sunday, we light two candles, the next, three, and the Sunday before Christmas, four. 

On December 4th, the kids and I unpacked and decorated... four days late for the advent calendars, but luckily they still haven’t any concept of dates and I had bought all the little gifts and chocolates but hadn’t yet filled the pockets.

December 6th, Samichlaus comes to town.  They don't have Santa Claus, here.  Samichlaus is dressed in a red robe like a bishop with a pointed golden cap.  He carries a tall stalk.  Accompanying him is 'Schmützli,' which translates, 'Dirty,' dressed in a monk's robes with a hood pulled over his head, carrying a lantern.  Traditionally Schmützli also carries a large sack and leads a donkey. 

Last year our neighbors were able to engage a Samichlaus to come to their house, and we were invited for the visit.  Mothers -- those traitors -- give Samichlaus a list of good and bad things her children have done during the year.  Samichlaus will sometimes grill the children about the bad things they have done, luckily this didn’t happen for us, Samichlaus remarked on Owens good behavior and for brushing his teeth well.  Soraya was simply terrified by the 6ft tall man in red. There is rumor that Schmützli puts bad little boys and girls into his sack and carries them off and they never get to see their Mommy or Daddy again.  None of this North American 'Mr. Nice Guy' stuff for the folks over here, ya? 

On December 11^th we bought our tree, paid 90chf, unlike my childhood days when you can hop into dad’s truck and drive the local forest roads looking for the best evergreen tree to bring home. I remember once the tree fell off the truck twice before we got it home, and by the time we put it up it was lopsided and a little thin on one side and dad had to brace it to the wall with string because it was so tippy!  Here there are tree farms who sell their trees at a hefty price, but they are grown to perfection as with most things in Switzerland.  The kids enjoyed decorating with their own hand crafted ornaments from the past years and Owen was able to appreciate how his creativity has improved since the previous year.

After that, things proceed quietly until December 24th.  We don't have all those colored lights like we do in Canada.  People put strings of small white lights on one pine tree in their front yard.  It is very subdued; very understated.  In the beginning, I missed all the gory color, but now I have learned to love this sweet visual spirit of a Swiss Christmas.

On December 24th, the Swiss put up their tree.  Traditionally, the children are ushered out of the room and the 'Christ Kind' (translated 'Christ child') arrives to decorate the tree.  Children never see the Christ Kind, of course.  Our family decorates our tree together while listening to CD’s of Christmas music my mother gave me, Bing Crosby and old blue eyes.

The Swiss open all their presents on Christmas Eve.  Oh, yes, and they put real candles on the tree and light them, then sit around singing Christmas carols.  This is why the tree must be absolutely fresh.  Also, they have a fire extinguisher nearby.  Each Christmas, I announce, "They would never let you do this in North America.  Lawsuits, you know." Singing the carols is fun the children know more songs than we do, and in both English and German...

Combining Canadian and Swiss Christmas traditions, is wonderful in a way it is nice to have the sense of another cultures traditions in our home we will take some traditions with us always. As a child we used to be allowed to open 1 present on Christmas Eve, but this is not a tradition that Jeremy’s family did so we don’t do it.  We are simply, like most other Canadian families, we open Santa’s and relative presents Christmas morning.  Like everyone else we then spend the day putting together the tiny pieces of this and that, scrounging around for batteries for all the new toys, taking them from the old warn out, no longer interested toys -- only hoping that the batteries have just enough juice to get you through the day, playing with all the new gear all the while trying to stuff a turkey and prepare all the trimmings for our usual North American guests who have no place else to go but the “Bards Soup Kitchen” our regular guest being Kevin (a good friend of Jer).

Then before you know it the day is gone, the wrapping paper is cleaned up, the cardboard broken down the dishes washed the left overs in the fridge. Exhausted the kids hit their pillows and are fast asleep, Christmas is over for another year!  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Aattchooo!  Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 12months you have heard about the Human Swine Flu H1N1, no it is not a disease you catch from eating porc...idiot!

What is your opinion? Are you ready to vaccinate your children? 

Preliminary tests of an H1N1 swine flu vaccine conducted in Australia and Britain show that a single dose creates enough antibodies to protect against the virus within about 10 days, but what happens if you are in contact with someone during the 10 days will you still become ill? How ill and what do you do then?

The decision for me is unclear... Will I inject the virus, the potentially deadly, newly created vaccine into my blood stream, or that of my children. Do I take the risk that we have strong enough immune systems and antibodies to fight the virus ourselves? 

Now I have to say I got an interesting email from my brother the other day and now I ask myself why isn't there a shortage of onions in the world??  ...read on to understand...

"A friend of mine told me a story about how when he was a kid he was in the hospital & near dying. His Italian grandmother came to the hospital & told a family member to go buy her a large onion & a 
new pair of white cotton socks. She sliced the onion open then put a slice on the bottom of each of his feet & put the white cotton socks on him. In the morning when he awoke they removed the socks. The slices of onion were black & his fever was gone. The following story that someone sent to me might have some truth in it & we are going to try this winter.

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu. Many of the farmers and their family had contracted it and many died.  
The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy.

Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in AZ. She said that several years ago many of her employees were coming down with the flu and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work.. (And no, she is not in the onion business.)

The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them in bowls around your home. If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even on top somewhere. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu.  If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the better. If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case..  Whatever, what have you to lose? Just a few bucks on onions!!!!

Now there is a P. S. to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this most interesting experience about onions:  Weldon, thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmers story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia and needless to say I was very ill...I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put one end on a fork and then place the forked end into an empty jar...placing the jar next to the sick patient at night.

It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.  Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties