Much anticipated pictures of my Swiss vacation

I have been meaning to post these pictures since the moment I got back to Boston, but a case of the flu and then a re-occuring case of the flu 3 days later kept me from doing so. Here it is Friday night, the first night I have felt "normal" in weeks, and I am ready to share my pictures with everyone.

Not far from where my brother and his wife live, is a city called Stein am Rein. Cobble stoned roads, paintings on the side of the buildings, fountains, . . . it was enchanting.

We went for a drive through the foothills of the Swiss Alps. It was cloudy for most of our stay in Fraunfeld, but the moment we got toward the Alps, it cleared up. Every morning we woke up to frost covering. I went running a couple of the mornings with my sister in law, and it was beautiful to run along these trails like the one you see below.

We drove over to see the "Disney Castle", I would attempt to spell the real name of it, but I don't want to slaughter the word. So I won't. Basically the king who lived in it was a crazy. Look it up, it's quite interesting really. This picture was taken in the courtyard of the castle, the bundle you see attached to Christina would be my niece Natalie. That kid was so bundled, she had no idea what was going on.

In Switzerland they use REAL candles. That's right, fire hazard and all. It was actually really nice to sit by the tree and actually feel warmth emanating from it. We had a really sweet Christmas Eve with the Klaumunzners. We sang Carols in Swiss German (attempted for us Americans) and in English, and my Dad read the christmas story from Luke and then the prophecy from the Book of Mormon. Every year I go home for Christmas, I play the piano as my Dad sings his favorite Christmas song. It was written by Michael McLean and is called "Joseph". My dad asked me if I had it memorized so we could sing it, and I only remembered a bit. Then he whipped out my christmas present, which was the music to the song. It was pretty cool.

On the last full day that I was there, Christina and I went into Zurich to pick up a present for her mom and just walk around. It had the big city/old city feel to it and I loved the decorations. It was a little unnerving not being able to understand a word anyone was saying, and I'm sure I looked like a clueless tourist, but I enjoyed my self all the same.

I want to close this post with possibly one of my favorite moments from the trip. As we were trying to decide what we were going to do at the castle (just walk up vs. take a tour), my dad noticed popcorn vending machines. You put a euro in, it plays a nice little diddy, and pretty soon you have fresh popped popcorn. Who would have thought. Genius. Well the music was really catchy. . .