A Year in Review

2010

January
The passing of my beloved Grandmother


February
Ski trip to La Clusaz


March
My Mom visits


April
Trips to Prague and Rothenburg ob der Tauber


May
Family fun in Europapark and Strasbourg


June
11 years of marriage. Great anniversary trip to the Pompidou in Metz and a night in the Ardennes


July
Trip back to Washington to visit family and friends.


August
Great visit with old friends as they made their way to their new home in Rwanda.


September
Amazing Ireland; how green and beautiful you were.


October
A mellow month of baking, sewing and apple picking.


November
Much anticipated visit from my SIL and oldest niece.


December
SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

{2009}

Little Difference #30

image credit

Little Difference #30 - Champagne

Now, first off let me just acknowledge that I'm not going to use the term champagne correctly in this post. I'm going to use champagne to refer to any sparkling wine - cremant, prosecco, and yes, even champagne. As we all know only sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of France is truly champagne as it has PDO status.

With New Year's Eve only days away I imagine many of you are buying some champagne to help bring in the New Year; to celebrate;toast to good health. Am I right? In America champagne is purchased and consumed for celebratory reasons - the new year, big promotion, wedding anniversary. Here in Luxembourg champagne (cremant) is not only a special occasion drink it is an any-given-Tuesday drink. Perhaps it is because Luxembourg produces its own cremant in the Moselle Valley. Maybe cremant is a source of national pride. I really don't know why it is consumed so regularly.
Girls night out? We start with cremant and often end with cremant. Dinner party? Cremant aperitif. Visit with the neighbors? Sure, an afternoon cremant sounds great! All markets, festivals, outside (and inside) events have a cremant booth. Kid birthday parties? It is not uncommon for the host and hostess to provide parents with a glass. You can even get cremant (beer or wine too, of course) at indoor play areas for kids.

My point is champagne is more than just a special occasion drink here. I don't want to say it flows like water, but it flows like water here. My friends and I realized this one night out when we ordered a bottle of cremant one random evening out. Someone said, "Would you drink this at home?" Both English and American, we all agreed "No." But then we're not home so we drink champagne like it ain't no thing.

Enjoy your champagne this weekend. We will do the same here in Luxembourg. Of course we'll enjoy it again next Thursday or Monday or maybe both days.

What's the champagne culture where you live?

Read about all the Little Difference here.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Katy xo

Little Difference #29

Little Difference #29 - Christmas Dessert

The Bûche de Noël is the official dessert of Christmas over here in Luxembourg. They start invading the bakeries about a week or so before Christmas. Yum, right? Seeing all these Bûches de Noël got me thinking. In America we don't have *one* dessert that everyone eats at Christmas. The English have their Christmas Pudding. The French and Luxembourgish (and a few others) have their Bûche de Noël. I can't think of anything comparable in American Christmas culture. We do Christmas cookies but that is really not a dessert you'd serve after a meal. For Thanksgiving we have pumpkin pie but nothing standard for Christmas. Friends, am I missing something?

This year I've seen loads of these little cute Bûche de Noël called buchette. They are exactly the same as their larger counter parts, just smaller and perhaps cuter. Essentially they are individual size Bûches de Noël. They seem to be all over this year. I had to buy some. See? Aren't they cute. Like the little axes?

The traditional Bûche de Noël takes another form besides miniature - ice cream! Oh, yes, the freezer cases are stuffed with bûche glacées this time of year. Same idea only made of ice cream. I even saw some ice cream buchettes (squeal!)

Now, I know you're busy. I realize it is the day before Christmas Eve, BUT, please take a moment to chime in. I'm interested in:

A) What dessert is consumed at Christmas time where you live?
B) To you Americans, I'm curious if your family has a traditional Christmas dessert.

I know you are out there and reading this. It just takes a sec.

Read all the Little Differences here.

Christmas Cookie Round-up

Gingerbread stars with pearl sugar

Finished them today. Chocolate thumbprints & gingerbread cookies; the only two Christmas cookie varieties that I'm loyal to. I got a recipe for Eggnog Cookies from a friend and decided to try it out. I do love eggnog (mostly just a splash in my coffee.) These cookies are delicious and will definitely be made again. I'm not adding them to my loyalty list. I'm just saying these are some pretty damn good cookies. I used treacle instead of molasses in the gingerbread. The cookies are much richer and darker with a much more intense flavor. I think they are quite delicious.

Gingerbread trees

Eggnog Cookies

Chocolate Thumbprints (Audrey calls them fingerprints!)

Here are the gingerbread men the girls made. I just love them! Audrey's are the ones LOADED with candy. Eva's are with the pink and white pearl candies. What are we going to do with these darling monstrosities? I managed to decorate one. Can you find it?

What are your favorite Christmas cookies?

Ornament Party

I sat down to write this and realized you aren't mad. You are not going to plan and host an ornament party 3 days before Christmas. So I'll just tell you it was great fun and I would definitely host one again. I'll remind you about it next year in plenty of time so you can plan yours. Here are a very few pictures from ours. It was impossible to photograph and help the girls too!

Just in case your kids are, oh, I don't know, driving you crazy while you're trying desperately to finish up your holiday to do list, here is a list of printables. These should keep 'em busy for a whole 30 minutes (hopefully more, if you're lucky!)

Twas the Night Before Christmas Fill-in-the-blanks

Christmas Fairy Box

Christmas Secret Message

Snowflake Fairy Coloring Sheet

Poinsettia Fairy Coloring Sheet

Charlie Brown Christmas Coloring Sheet

Dress Frosty Activity Sheet

Elf Spot the Difference

Good Luck!

Child Drawn Christmas Ornaments

I love these ornaments! I hope you do too. So simple to make and backed in darling Japanese Christmas fabric. I cut the fabric into 4.5 inch squares, sewed almost around the perimeter (1/4 of an inch away from the edge,) tucked in a bit of trim for the hanger, left an opening for stuffing and then let the kids have at it. Oh, I cut the edges with pinking shears since they were unfinished.

After the kids were finished with their drawing and stuffing I quickly sewed up the opening on the sewing machine. Easy peasey lemon squeezey.

Materials:
White cotton fabric
Totally cute backing fabric (or any piece will do)
poly-fill aka stuffing
Random bits of trim
Pinking Shears
fabric markers

We were able to have our ornament party today! I'll post a few pictures as well as some helpful hints about hosting one.

Feathery Angel Ornaments

These ornaments were inspired by some made by Kathe Wohlfahrt that I saw at the Cologne Christmas Market. We went to Cologne last weekend and had an absolutely wonderful time. I've been meaning to tell you about it. Unfortunately, my pictures were a terrible disappointment so I've been putting it off. Anyhoo, these sweet little angels are a breeze to make and will add a bit of charm to your Christmas tree.

We're going to make these at the ornament party. They are the most advanced (have the most steps) of the ornaments we're going to make. They are much simpler to make than the Doily Angels I shared with you a few years ago, though.

Here are the directions in case you'd like to make some too.

Materials:
20mm wooden beads. Be sure to buy ones with 2 holes in them.
white feathers - short ones or medium (about 6 inches) ones
Silver pipe cleaners cut into 2.5 inch pieces
String for the hanger, I used silver crochet thread
Paint Pens
Fine black marker
Pink Crayon
10 inch piece of pipe cleaner (any color) folded in half
Glue (glue gun or strong craft glue)

Step 1:Put the folded end of your 10 inch pipe cleaner into the hole of a wooden bead. Hold onto the pipe cleaners while you create the angel's face.
Step 2: Create the angel's face. Use paint pen for the hair, a fine marker for the face, and pink crayon for the cheeks.

Step 3: Let your angel face dry. You can set it in a jar or glass.
Step 4: Bend silver pipe cleaner into a circle. Glue it onto your angel's head for a halo.
Step 5: Squirt glue into the bottom hole of your angel's head. Place two feathers in the hole with the glue.
Step 6: Take 7 inches of string, fold it in half and knot it. This will be the hanger for your ornament.
Step 7. Squirt glue into the hole on top of your angel's head being careful of the halo.
Step 8: With a pin push the knot of your hanger into the glue filled hole.
Step 9: Let dry!

I tried the pasta angels last night and found they are too difficult to glue. The pasta will hole with hot glue, but that is not practical for a party of 8 young girls. So I decided to skip the pasta angels and the pasta snowflakes. Our final line up is this: Feathery Snow Angels, Child Drawn Fabric Ornaments (more on those soon,) Animals in Winter, and Woven Cookie Stars.

Here's the problem, though . . . the SNOW. We are literally having a blizzard here in Luxembourg. A blizzard, people. It has been snowing heavily all day. That on top of the 4-5 inches that were already on the ground. The airport is closed. People are shut into their houses. It is pretty amazing. I have my doubts if there will be much driving tomorrow. Hopefully we can fit it in before the 24th.

Ornament Afternoon

Biting off more than I can chew? Perhaps, but that is what the holidays are all about, right? I'm hosting a little ornament party for my girls and a few of their friends. I have supplies for 5 different ornaments. Possibly too many, but that's okay is we don't get to all of them. I think it sounds festive and fun! I really hope the girls feel the same way. I'm nearly done prepping all the materials. I'll show you tomorrow or Sunday how I plan on organizing this whole shebang. Here are links to 3 of the ornaments we're going to make. I'll share the other 2 with you this weekend.

Darling Christmas fabric is from Jo in Japan. Terribly excited to use it!

And since we're on the subject of biting off more than we can chew, let me confess that we're hosting an Open House next week too. Yes, it is a lot of work, but I'm very much looking forward to it. I love the visiting, the nibbling, and, yes, I like the holiday cheer. I'll be back next week for some "what should I make" advice.

So tell me, what have you bitten off? If you're just sitting back in your clean house sipping egg nog, laughing at us crazy types, reveal yourselves anyway!

Random P.S.
Since we can't get pandora over here, I've been listening to Christmas music play lists on Youtube. The girls have been enjoying this one.

(not quite) vintage europe

Back from 1996. Not thinking about Christmas cards back then.

One of my Favorite Things

Christmas cards are one of my all time favorite things about the holidays. I know, I know I hear some of you groaning. It seems Christmas cards are dreaded by many. Not me, though! I love choosing them, writing little messages, addressing the envelopes and, naturally, I love receiving them. In fact I can't throw them away. I keep them in an envelope after the holidays. A borderline hoarder? Perhaps.

The one part I definitely don't like is finding a suitable picture to use. Or having one taken. We started sending photo cards after we had Eva. For a while the photo part was easy. Our friend and photographer extraordinaire, Sullivan would take one for us. As much as I despise having my picture taken, I do like to have a nice family photo taken at least once a year. Since we've been in Luxembourg it has been difficult to get a quality one.

Our first year here we used a crappy one we had a stranger take. It was that or nothing.

The following year I didn't even attempt a family photo and used a cute one of the girls instead. This year I was bound and determined to have a family photo.

I started thinking about it in Ireland. Here we are at the Cliffs of Moher.

Then I thought about it in Germany during our visit to Burg Eltz. Nice crane in the background. Castles are almost always under construction.

As you may remember we went to Paris after Burg Eltz while my SIL and niece were visiting. I thought Paris would be a great place for a family photo. And, my SIL would be there to take some for us. She is sympathetic to my quest for a nice picture and didn't seem to mind taking loads until I thought we had one we could use.

Nice Fence. I hate my hair up.

Ah, sort of better. Hair down. Notice my enormous purse on the ground?

Yay! We're all looking at the camera. I dulled the color a bit. We're all set. NOT!

Little did I realize that my camera was set to take very small photos. All of them were too small for printing on a Christmas card (even the one from Ireland and the one from Germany!!) I searched for a card that required only a small photo, but even those didn't work.

After all that, I stuck the kids in the backyard on our snow day and snapped some portraits. So, 2010 is, once again, a picture of the just the girls. I'm pleased with how it turned out, but a touch disappointed it wasn't of all of us. I'll show it to you after they have all been delivered.

This year I ordered from Tiny Prints on a recommendation from a friend. It was brilliant! I had the majority of our cards mailed directly from Tiny Prints. This was great because sending a card to the U.S. from Luxembourg increased to over 1 euro in September. Since I was sending within the U.S. the postage was much less. Then I had 20 or so cards sent to me in Luxembourg for local peeps - shipping was only $5.00!!! Can you even believe that?

Do you send out Christmas cards? Love it or hate it?