How We Spent the 2019 Holidays
Our holiday decorations for 2019. Modest and just right. Lausanne, Switzerland, December 2019.
Heading back from my midmonth birthday trip to Lyon, France, Arnaud and I had no holiday plans and no holiday decorations.
Clarification: Not only did we not have any holiday decorations on display in the apartment, we actually did not own any holiday decorations, other than a photo ornament my brother and his family gave me when I passed through Houston in November. While everyone else in the world had flocked and frocked their homes and offices by early December, we had zilch as of December 17.
When we stopped at a French supermarket on the drive back to Switzerland—there’s no butter like French butter, my friends—Arnaud suggested that we pause in the decoration section to see what we could find. I wish I had pictures of this sad chunk of unloved and miserable holiday “enhancements,” but the depression it induced precluded thoughts of creative production.
Though I assured him we didn’t need decoration, especially given the selection on offer, Arnaud insisted that we pick at least the smallest of something. We found two tiny fake trees, a short string of lights, and two sleeves of ornaments the size of ping-pong balls.
Further clarification: Not only did we have no plans for the holiday break as of December 20, we actually did not even know if we would travel, stay mostly at home and do overnights in one or two places in Switzerland, or relax at home completely.
Though we made a few forays at finding last-minute vacation deals and though we uncovered a couple of options for places to overnight in Switzerland (where I could have continued my snowshoeing adventures), we opted to stay in our little aerie and roost.
The two of us at the Montreux lakefront, enjoying the Christmas markets. Montreux, Switzerland. Saturday, December 21, 2019.
We kicked off the holiday season with a visit to the Montreux Christmas market on a surprisingly warm and glorious Winter Solstice afternoon.
We aimed to purchase another holiday decoration or two and had nearly given up on finding anything we liked when we discovered a little felt replica of Arnaud’s dog, William. Later that night, when we set up our little trees on a quilt I’d made years ago with holiday cards from friends and family as accompaniments, we staged William to emerge from the forest to spread holiday cheer.
From thenceforward, the relaxation commenced. We tried to spend as much time in our holiday pajamas as we could—a gift from my sister-in-law Margaret for Christmas 2017 in Houston (and still very much enjoyed).
Rocking our personalized holiday pajamas, as one does. Lausanne, Switzerland. September 19, 2019.
Also, we tried our hands at baking for the first time since we arrived in Lausanne.
If I’ve missed anything from the United States (family and friends do not count, as family and friends are not “things”), I’ve missed American desserts. Though we didn’t aim as high as baking a pie on this go-around, we did make a few passes at chocolate chip and sugar cookies.
The chocolate chip cookies won us from batch one. (The recipe called them “no-fail,” and I credit the author for accuracy on that count—especially given that we made it employing approximate ingredients available in a foreign country.)
We made a second batch, just to ensure the first didn’t succeed by fluke, and we got another win. (Whether we’ve made additional batches since that time and this writing, I shall not say.)
I can’t call the first batch of sugar cookies a success, though we ate them. (Like pizza, even bad cookies are almost always still edible.)
We went with a different sugar cookie recipe for the second batch. It baked up a lot more successfully than the first batch, on scales of attractiveness and taste. Also, as Christmas proper had passed by the the time of the second baking, we went with shamrocks and Ramona replicas, so that had to have helped.
For those interested, both winning recipes came from my favorite cookbooks; the chocolate chip recipe from the Barbara Fairchild and the sugar cookie recipe from the Mark Bittman.
We didn’t only bake for the entire holiday period, though I can’t say we did much of note beyond baking.
Other than days of respite for the official U.S. holidays, I had an intensive workload to round out the year. Also, I continued with my French studies. (Progress? We’ll see.) As for Arnaud, he managed a considerable amount of biking—a far more healthful counterpoint to the cookie eating than mine.
What did you get up to this holiday season?