Cookies!!!

These are the 390 cookies we baked for the Young Adults to give them after the Blood Drive. We made 31 bags with 12 each, and had a few extra. The stars are Zimtsterne, the hearts are Mailänderli, the circles are Schwabenbrötli, and the trees are good old American sugar cookies!

Grittibänz

The Swiss love making things with bread dough. At Christmas time, they make little men of all different sizes and styles, called "Grittibänz." This selection was in the window of our neighborhood bakery.

These are 24 of the 30 "Grittibänz" we had for the Young Adults after the Blood Drive. (There are six on each plate.) They each are holding a wooden shovel. Note the raisins for their eyes and belly buttons. They taste as good as they look, too. (You can see also some of the cookie bags we prepared on the right.)

So popular and well known are these "dough men" that they are even used in advertising. In this double billboard, the lead fellow is running away with a local brand of (good!) butter.

Snow!

It was a while in coming, but December 19, we had our first snowfall. This tree near our tram stop is an interesting one. Once it lost all its leaves, it just had clumps of berries hanging from its branches. It looked so cute dressed up with caps of snow on each clump, that I wanted to share it.

After a night of snowfall, the berries are almost buried by the snow!

This is the same tree that had the blazing fall colors. It is just so neat how the snow piles up and outlines everything. Can you see the bird feeder hanging from one of the branches?

Bern Ward Christmas Party

The Swiss can really decorate! Notice the stars hanging from the ceiling. This is normally the Relief Society room. And through the front windows, across the street, you can see the apartment building where we live.

Would you believe this is a chapel?

This is the building for the Biel Ward. The Young Adults spent all afternoon turning it into a party place, complete with a wooden dance floor laid over the carpet. If you look carefully, you can spot the organ, and the rack for the hymnbooks is disguised to the right of the door.

No this isn't a toy...

but a real piece of equipment. This is the size they have to use in the old part of town. It looked so cute, I had to take a picture. (It's not framed well because the tram was coming, and I had to move quickly--and catch that tram!)

Even trees are orderly here...

In Switzerland, the trees neatly drop their leaves directly underneath them. None of this messy wind blowing them around. You will see an orchard with circles of leaves under each tree. These trees are by the temple.