A Visit from Grammy Claus

The Christmas season might be my favorite time of the year, and I’d say I come by this pretty naturally. I couldn’t think of a person that would enjoy the European Christmas market scene more than my Mom. While the handmade soaps, wooden bowls and beaded jewelry at the markets aren’t really my thing, the narrow rows of little wooden stalls, overwhelming aroma of raclette, piping hot mugs of gluwein and the flashing lights of the kiddie rides create a pretty magical holiday scene.

We wasted no time introducing Grammy to the Basel Weihnachtsmarkt, welcoming her with a mug of gluwein at our favorite stand right next to the children’s carousel. And the following day, she and I had a nice time shopping around town for Christmas presents before taking the boys to show off their “Funky Dance” moves at Gymboree.

But the highlight of Grammy’s visit was our mother-daughter overnight in Strasbourg, France. We stayed at the Cour du Corbeau, a nice 16th century inn right in the heart of town and walking distance to all of the holiday sights. Though we were disappointed to find “complet” signs outside all of the restaurants at lunch time, we grabbed some tartes flambes from an outdoor vendor and explored the markets, which were spread all over town. We had one mission: to find authentic German nutcrackers for Grammy to bring back to relatives. Being right on the border of Germany, you’d think these would be easy to find; but it wasn’t until we had searched the entire town, bought silly hats and stopped for a glass of wine that we found the one nutcracker stall right around the corner from our hotel. With our mission complete, we plopped down our bags and put up our feet for a bit before heading out to experience the whole scene at night. The town was much more magical at nighttime; Christmas lights were glowing and the gluwein was flowing. We took a moment to admire the big Christmas tree and the village of lights beneath it. Then we made our way to the Petite France area of town where we had a reservation at L’eveil des Sens, a cozy contemporary Alsatian restaurant. It was a unique opportunity to catch up just the two of us, which was really special. We spent nearly four hours gabbing away over some pretty incredible food and wine, including my first foie gras!

We returned to Basel the next morning and I got busy packing for our trip back to the United States. We joined Anne, Kyle and Max Sunday afternoon for a holiday toast, leaving them the two silly hats as our parting gift. Then over the ocean and up I-95, to Grandmother's house we went...