12 Days of Christmas

We all know the traditional 12 Days of Christmas…at least we all know the preface…I actually don’t know what each day’s present was. But that doesn’t matter…these are my 12 days of Christmas:

12 - Full days of work in December
11 – Fresh Dungeness Crab (at those that made it to the table)
10 – Bottles of Wine
9 - Online purchases
8 –Formal Dinners
7 – Shopping excursions (searching for the perfect presents)
6 – Holiday Parties
5 – Extra Pounds
4 – International Flights
3 – Days with my Niece
2 – Nights in Zurich and
1 – Christmas Carol sing-along at my favorite dive bar

A Long and Short Goodbye to Zurich

This past weekend I flew to Zurich under the ruse of needing to help Martin clean out our apartment, but in reality as a way to finally say goodbye to Zurich (the city I have called home for the better part of 3 years) and all of my friends I have met and love over there. I had originally planned a 2 week trip in March to have a proper goodbye, but with the accelerated timeline and Martin moving to San Francisco in January, I had only 2 nights to finally close that chapter in my life.

Those 2 nights and 2 days were absolutely perfect. And while I arrived in Zurich Saturday morning with a laundry list of what I wanted to do, see and eat for one last time, I have never been more happy to leave a to do list undone, for better things.

Saturday evening all of our closest friends in Zurich came over for one last dinner party and a chance to drink the rest of the alcohol we had collected over years, including the bottle of gin Coleman, John and Martin brought on their first visit to Zurich, the vodka and kahlua from our Big Lebowski party and the margarita makings from Girls’ Fiesta Night where either Shannon or Anna had to fake drinking since they were pregnant (unfortunately they both had to dupe me at some point and so I can’t remember which one it was). With the party lasting until 3am I was slightly afraid we would run out of everything, but the supply seemed endless.

Sunday was spent packing up, cleaning the house and hanging out with the newest addition to the crew – Grace Lynn Lawry, Kim and Nick’s first child. At 2 weeks old she was already showing the athleticism of her parents, holding her head up, doing push-ups and practically scooting across the floor. She is such a strong little girl, that I even broke my cardinal rule and held her way before the 6 month mark.

And with our time in Zurich down to the last few hours, Martin and I spent our final night in Zurich as we normally spent our Sunday nights, a home cooked meal a la Breuer followed by a movie and Martin falling asleep half way through.

In the end I accomplished nothing on my list – no Khao Soi noodles at Tiffins, kebaps at Imbiss, bratwurst at Sternen, steak of Eisenhof, one last dance at Nelson’s, Christmas lights on Bahnhofstrasse, or the Globus Christmas Markets (although we did manage to have gluhwein at the Bellevue Christmas markets even though Martin had to practically drag me there). But in the end, the trip was absolutely perfect. And while we might not have an apartment in Zurich anymore, I fully intend to still visit…hopefully within the year!

Hillbilly Thanksgiving

The past few years, my family has spent Thanksgiving weekend with our “extended summer family” at Lake Pillsbury; and this year was no exception. And like always, the weekend ended with a big smile on my face, an even bigger belly, a shake of my head and a remembered love for my hillbilly alter-ego.

Cody and I (the last 2 Gimbels with full time jobs) took Wednesday off and were to drive up together later that afternoon. So after 3 quick hours of work (so much for the day off) I made my way over to Berkeley, CA home of my brother, location of his work and the largest concentration of bad drivers in all of the US. Cody picked me up from BART, and while we waited for his pork fat to be delivered (to make Elk sausage stuffing for Thanksgiving) we headed to Andronicos the classiest, without sarcasm, of grocery stores to pick up some last minute necessities for the weekend – me, the ingredients for “crack” dip and Cody, bloody mary supplies. Looking at our shopping cart of rotisserie chicken, ranch dip, buffalo sauce, cream cheese, vodka, beer, tomato juice and pickled green beans, it could have easily passed for a Thanksgiving dinner – we had all 4 courses!

With the groceries in hand and the pork fat delivered, we were officially on our way. And thanks to Cody’s defensive driving we made it out of Berkeley, avoiding 3 potential car accidents.

We woke up Thursday to a brisk, fall morning and began the preparations for our feast later that day. By 11am and with a phone call from Dana, I knew it was going to be an extra special Thanksgiving… apparently 20 wild turkeys including babies, had come out of the woods and were wandering around in front of her cabin. Dana and Cassidy were inside, by the fire, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment and wanted to share! That is, it was peaceful until Ray showed up, marking his return home with the blast of a shotgun, turkeys scattering and him running into the house with a big grin on his face – Happy First Thanksgiving Cassidy, daddy killed a turkey! Or he at least tried to kill one…the bird was apparently missed (something about not having the right gun on him) and thankfully we had to resort to the store bought bird in the fridge.

And man was it delicious…along with the yams, mashed potatoes, 2 types of stuffing, brussel sprouts, dinner rolls, pumpkin cupcakes, and plenty of wine and champagne. And like years past the feast and party continued throughout the rest of the weekend, with minor breaks for board games, Mexican train, mixing drinks and hanging out with friends and family. Thankfully no additional animals or wildlife were spotted and the weekend remained casualty free.

Happy Thanksgiving!