December 26th - Family Dinner and gift opening

Pam and I by the Christmas Tree
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Today at Pascal and Adriana's flat we celebrated a slightly delayed Christmas as everyone was available, and we had a full Christmas celebration.

Pascal and I were responsible for dinner, so we wanted to impress.  We spent most of the day in the kitchen, preparing; stuffed baked chicken, brown sugar crusted ham, scalloped style potato's, green salad, and much more.  Pam and Adriana put the final Christmas touches to the dinner table and the flat, and Pam's grandparents and father Walter finally arrived around 5:30 pm.

We celebrated Christmas again!!!!!!!

Pascal light the candles on the tree.
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Dinner was outstanding (if I do say so myself :)) and everyone was in the Christmas spirit.  After dessert, we finally sat down in the living room, and Pascal lit the (real) candles on the Christmas tree which is a tradition in Switzerland.  Pam and I played Santa and handed out the intial gift from us to her family.  Everyone got UGG slippers from us, and those of you who know about UGG's already know they are the most comfortable and cozy slippers known to mankind.  Everyone seemed excited to get them, and we also handed out some Nike clothing much to their delight.

YAY! a real fondue set!!
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After some more gift giving,  Adriana and Pascal finally gave Pam and I our Christmas present.  Excited and curious, we opened the box and we pulled out a complete geniune Fondue set from Switzerland!!

Needless to say we were very excited.  In addition, we received a generous amount of Swiss Franks and chocolate from Pam and Pascal's Mom, and some other gifts from her family.  It was quite an evening of Christmas cheer, to say the least.

Pascal and Walter in their Nike gear from Pam and I.
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After some good conversation and laughter, everyone left around 9:30 pm and the rest of us stayed up late talking over some good wine.  What was neat about this night was that even though it was the day after Christmas, it sure seemed like another Christmas Day.

Today we went to a really cool natural hot springs a few hours away in another canton in Switzerland.  The village was called Leukerbad, and it was located high up in another region of the Alps towards France.  When we got back today, Pam and I went over to her grandparents for Fondue. I will blog about our trip to Luekerbad tomorrow after we get back from a side trip for the day to Luzern.

Sitting down for a family Christmas dinner.
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Adeiu!!