Christmas and New Year's at home in Horgen

Tom and I enjoyed Christmas displays in lots of places this December, but we also set aside one evening to go to our little town center to see if they had decorated. We were not disappointed. 

Christmas greetings on the side of the town hall

Alicia arrived in Switzerland in time to help decorate the Christmas tree which we bought from a tree farm in Horgen. Maybe others share our dilemma of having too many ornaments to fit on the tree. 

She also helped decorate gingerbread.

some traditional and some not....can you find us?

here's your hint

A few days before Christmas, Alicia and I took a day trip to Zurich. First stop: the zoo. Alicia had never seen red pandas and is quite the fan. They are very cute and playful - maybe the light snow helped.

is this a happy face or what?

On the way to the pandas, we walked through the penguin house and then lucked upon the penguin parade. It was very cool to walk so close to the parading penguins. (apologies for amateur videos)

Of course, I'm a fan of the big cats and tigers are amazingly beautiful. We learned which was the alpha tiger: the one who watched another munching on meat and then came and took it away. GRRRRRR!
 

Later in the day, we watched candles float down the Limmat River in Zurich - a tradition among Swiss school children. 

We went into the neighboring toy store to warm up and wait for Tom to arrive. We browsed and found the cat toy I've been looking for a long time: nerf balls! Denali had a very good Christmas!

Denali seems to know that bag is his and he is ready!

notice paw in bag

 

Christmas day was unseasonably mild here so we took advantage of it for an afternoon walk - exercise and working up an appetite for dinner at the same time.

neighborhood sheep were a highlight for Alicia

We learned from others that the fireworks on New Year's Eve are plentiful and can be seen all around the lake. We made our traditional appetizer buffet and eventually made our way out to the balcony to watch fireworks. They were being set off all evening, but things did heat up at midnight. Luckily, the night was relatively mild. We could also step inside to warm up at any time. The big Zurich fireworks lasted at least 30 minutes! No commute home afterwards was an added bonus!

ferries continued all night - blue boat is a party boat

we're ready for the show to start!

 

someone was cold

Happy 2013!