Gabrielle on the right; Diana and the Mascaros at the piano; Bishop Alvin Schwendener.

DECEMBER 21, 2009 MONDAY

A cold wave has hit Switzerland it being the coldest it’s been for a long time. Most of the temperatures have been zero degrees F. or below. The coldest was in the French part of Switzerland in La Brevine, NE, where it got down to -34.2 C. which is way below zero. So much for global warming.

We didn’t have any plans for this morning so we fiddled around doing this and that and just having a pleasant uneventful morning. Charlotte called to tell us the other missionaries were going to come to her home this afternoon to play games for P-day rather than try to go sightseeing because it was so cold outside. She invited us to come over, too, if we wanted. At about 11:00 I decided to go to the new LiDL to buy some nectarines to take to the families who have invited us to dinner each of the next three evenings. I took tram #9 to get there, but one stop away from where I wanted to get off, the tram stopped and didn’t go any further. I asked the driver what the problem was; he said he was told over his radio to stop, but they didn’t tell him why or how long to stay put. I got out and walked the rest of the way to LiDL hoping that when I’d finished shopping, the tram would be running again. No such luck. When I came back out, I saw the tram still stopped so I just walked back into Schwamendingen. Just as I got there the trams started running again, but I was glad for the chance to walk and get a little exercise. While I was walking, I received phone calls from two sets of missionaries. The first was from Elders Vincent & Knight wanting to borrow our One Good Man DVD to watch it on their P-day today. The second was from Elders Ross & Rowley who wanted to come use our computer to write their emails. I called Diana who was still home to let her know they were coming. I finally made it home, a lot later than I thought I would when I left home.

When Elders Ross & Rowley were finished, we enlisted them to help carry the bags of home evening presents over to the Moeller-Russo’s home so we wouldn’t have to carry them over tonight alone. They weren’t home so we carried the bags down and put them outside Charlotte’s door. A little later we heard Joerg in the basement storeroom and I went out and carried the bags upstairs and since their apartment door was open, I carried them right inside and put them down without anyone seeing me. Then I hurried back down and went back into Charlotte’s apartment. Later on that evening Joerg & Irene told us all that Santa Claus had been and left three bags of presents in their apartment. All eyes looked at us; we hadn’t fooled anyone.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing sequence with Charlotte and Elder Irick while Elders Vincent & Nilson played chess. When the missionaries left, Charlotte showed us how to a make flat pumpkin pie. It didn’t turn out so good because it was squash and not pumpkin, but it was okay to eat. She gave us the left over squash mixture and later we put pumpkin spice in it along with flour etc. and made cookies. They weren’t red hot either, but they were certainly better than the pie.

We made a quick trip home to change and pick up the last bag of presents and then went to Madeline’s to get her and escort her to the Moeller-Russos. She walks so slow because of her crippled knee that it took about 15 minutes to walk the few blocks Moeller-Russo’s home. She’s a fun person and we love to walk with her. We were excited for this home evening because of all the presents we had bought for the game. But before the game we had to get through dinner first. Irene had it all ready for us when we got there; the table was so festive with Christmas ornaments by each plate (which she allowed us to keep), red table cloth and Christmas themed napkins. We started with salad and then were served a Austrian traditional soup with dark bread. It was a simple but a very delicious meal.

After dinner we assembled in the family room and sang Christmas hymns for a half hour or so and then proceeded with the game. We put all the presents out and then beginning with Irene, each person picked one, opened it and then had to give it away to someone else. When he gave it, he had to say why he picked that person to give it to. After the first round was complete, then, beginning with Irene again, each person in their turn could either select a new present or take one from someone else. If a present was taken from someone else, that person could pick a new one. When the last present was taken, the game was over. It was hilariously funny and everyone had a good time. Some of the presents were a Chinese checker set, three long sticks of salami, scarves, umbrella with money, a Swiss military cap with rootbeer and slippers, a racklett machine, chocolate bars, salt &pepper shakers with money, two billfolds with money, a box of children’s toys, a fleece blanket, two chocolate Santa Clauses with money, an aluminum Swiss mug, Swiss slippers, ties, frying pan, headband ear muffs and a German children’s book. Everyone had a blast and we had a blast putting it all together. After the game we sat back around the table and had a frozen dessert that Charlotte made for the party.

The only thing that put a damper on the whole evening was that we couldn’t find our camera. We tried to find it before we left home, but a quick search couldn’t locate it. We checked Charlotte’s apartment to see if we had left it there earlier in the day. Nope! There were some funny things that happened that we wished we could have photographed. Even after we got home and made a thorough search of our apartment, we couldn’t find it. We had given it up for lost. However, one last look in the satchel I used on Sunday proved successful. Even though we had looked in it several times before, we didn’t see it because both the camera case and the satchel were black. What a relief! What would we do without a camera?