Singing Songs of Praise

The world famous Harlem Gospel choir is coming to town tomorrow night, so get rolling. The most famous gospel choir in America today and one of the most famous and celebrated in the world, has performed for people such as Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II, Elton John and has accompanied Barack Obama during his campaign rally. They have recorded with U2, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Simple Minds, just to name a few. The Choir was founded in 1986 by Allen Bailey, who got the idea for the Choir while attending a celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Cotton Club in Harlem. The Choir presents the finest singers & musicians from Harlem's Black Churches & the New York/Tri-State area.

The theme of every show is "bringing people and nations together". Their repertoire includes traditional and contemporary gospel, jazz and blues and tracks such as "O Happy Day ", "Amazing Grace", "Nobody Knows, " and "Down by the Riverside".

You can buy tickets online at: ticketcorner.ch/musicalmente-tickets
The concert starts at 20:30 in the Palazzo dei Congressi. Get your voice warmed up!!!

A different kind of Christmas tree

If you have football crazy kids at home, you will also own at least one Vuvuzela since last summer's World Cup.  Two South Africans decided to hold an international competition to revive the controversial vuvuzela, the plastic horn that became known worldwide during the 2010 soccer World Cup for its drowning buzz. The Vuvuzela has become an extraordinary symbol of unity in South Africa. The contest aimed to make this object of unity an object of utility by generating ways to reuse it.

Just in time for Christmas and perfectly child-friendly I felt inspired by the Vuvuzela Christmas tree. The children can decorate it themselves and put it up in their room as decoration... and guess what...they won't be able to use it for a while!!!

Travel? No, thank you!

Do you remember when travelling used to be fun? That was actually only a few years back but it seems like ages. Everytime we set off on a new trip it takes longer and longer although the distances remain the same. Who said that the world is getting smaller?

Now, I admit personel is getting scarse, efficiency is a term few apply nowadays but state of the art planes and super-duper scanning technologies are suppose to make up for that, aren't they?

If it's not Eyjafjallajokull, the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano that shuts down the European air travel, it is the French strikers, sometimes the Spanish and if all of the above actually cooperate and act the way they are suppose to....it starts snowing! It doesn't snow in the South or in the North but across the whole continent at the same time, preferably on a Friday or a Sunday...et voilà!

How many times can you get stuck in an airport within one month? An easyjet plane landed in Gatwick yesterday and the passengers could not disembark for 7 hours?!? Hello, remind me kindly which century we are living in?

My conclusion: today's real luxury is to own a private plane which would allow you to wizz off whenever you felt like it without any hassles or delays. Dream on, girl!!!!

Brunsli (Swiss Christmas Brownies)

Today I would like to share another typical Christmas biscuit recipe with you. Brunslis along with Cinnamon Stars, Mailänderli and Chräbeli are the 4 classic Christmas cookies in this part of the world. I could probably come up with a different Christmas biscuits recipe every day and wouldn’t have listed them all by next winter, therefore I am sticking to these few classics.

Ingredients:

150 g sugar

1 pinch of salt

250 g ground almonds

¼ tea spoon cinnamon

1 pinch of clove powder

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of flour

2 fresh egg whites 

100 g bitter chocolate

2 tea spoons of kirsch

Preparation:

Mix sugar, salt, almonds, cinnamon, clove powder, cocoa powder and flour in a bowl.

Add egg whites and stir until ingredients are evenly distributed.

Cut chocolate in real small pieces, pour hot water over the chocolate, let rest for about 5 minutes, then pour off all water except about half a tablespoon, stir until even. Now immediately proceed with the next step.

Add melted chocolate from the previous step and the kirsch, knead to a soft dough.

Roll out dough on a flat surface (sprickle surface slightly with sugar so the dough does not stick to it), approximately 10 mm thick. Cut out different shapes with cookie cutter and put them on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.

Let them rest for about 5 to 6 hours or over night in a dry place.

Bake for about 4 to 6 minutes in the center of the pre-heated oven at 250 °C.

Let cool completely before serving.

Another Lugano derby

Ticino’s big advantage is that the beautiful nature encourages you to be sporty and the kids learn the spirit of fairplay and grasp the necessity of excercise at a very young age. Lugano being a city of barley 50’000 inhabitants you need to come up with your own activity schedule which therefore usually revolves around sports.

Yesterday we met the local ice hockey stars, today we are off to see the basketball derby Lugano Tigers vs SAM Basket Massagno.

My kids really enjoy following the Lugano Tigers basketball matches because they are actually encouraged by the organizers to make as much noise as possible in order to support their team. Switerland’s youth is raised to respect the traditions of hush and silence, so this opportunity to go wild for one evening is a great treat.

The derby is on tonight at the gym of the Istituto Elvetico (Salesiani Don Bosco - Via Canonica, 15 - 6900 Lugano) at 19:30.

Check it out: Lugano Tigers

Locarno on ice

If your children are enrolled at the Swiss public school, Wednesday afternoons can be very long. The kids get off at 11:45 and either they follow their various extracurricular activities or else Mummy has to come up with a pretty good programme to keep them entertained!!!!

Today I thought I’d take them off to Locarno which is roughly 40km up the valley. For the Christmas festivities the city of Locarno has set up an ice rink in the main piazza Grande. 

Ticino has a long and strong history of ice hockey, therefore today (as of 14:00) the children can meet their heros of the rival local hockey teams HC Lugano and HC Ambri Piotta and hunt for autographs while skating. Sounds like a perfect plan to me!

Check it out for yourdelf: Locarno on ice

St.Moritz in pictures

Sun setting over Engadine mountains

Looking down the Engadine valley

St.Moritz's City Hall by night

 Hanselmann café

 Christmas lights

 Christmas tree infront of the Palace hotel

St.Moritz: a weekend escape

Looking for a glamorous weekend escape? St Moritz is the embodiment of Swiss chic, and has been so since the resort’s beginnings in 1854. Nestled at the centre of the Engadine valley, St Moritz boasts more than 350 kilometres of groomed slopes in 4 connected ski areas. St.Moritz is only 2 hours drive away from Lugano. Given the heavy snowfalls over the past weeks, an excursion to the lovely valley of Engadine is an excellent idea.

The Engadine - where people greet each other with 'Allegra', a Romansh (Switzerland’s 4^th national language) expression roughly meaning, in today's terms, 'be happy'.

A Romansh legend about this patch of land is still told by the inhabitants: "When the archangel had sealed the gate to paradise behind Adam and Eve, God stood in the now-deserted Garden of Eden and was filled with pity for the people who had chosen the path of sin. He therefore called for his angels, and told them that from then onwards paradise was to remain closed to all human beings. However, he wished to create for them a place on earth that would remind them of their lost homeland, a place that should be close to heaven and filled with all things beautiful, yet not perfect. Obeying this divine order, the angels duly created a paradise on earth: the Engadine.

Even if you are not a skier there is a child friendly ice-rink, romantic sleigh rides and picturesque walking paths around the lakes to be discovered. On a clear, cold air night the stars seem so close that you feel as if you could reach out and touch them. Nothing beats lying in the snow all bundled up with your kids looking up into the sky waiting to catch a shooting star.

Please check out my link list for some local tips on St.Moritz and the Engadine valley.

How many reindeer does Santa have?

Do you know the names of all Santa's reindeer? 

Originally, Santa had eight reindeer. And then Rudolph came along. So now he has nine. 

These are their names:

1. Dasher

2. Dancer

3. Prancer

4. Vixen

5. Comet

6. Cupid

7. Donner (or Donder)

8. Blitzen

9. Rudolph

Christmas family fun

How about a few ideas of what to do with your family on a free day?

Make snowmen paper chains

Select the perfect carrot for Rudolph

Play “Pin the nose on the reindeer”

Make mince pies for Father Christmas

Make paper snowflakes

Put on a Nativity play for the family

Play “Hunt the thimble”

Make crowns for Christmas lunch (so terribly British, isn’t it just?)

Decorate a sleeping Dad

Make an angel for the top of the tree

Wrap up for a winter walk and see who can spot the most robins

Make a snowman