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Posts Tagged ‘christmas tree’

After being stuck in the house for a week, a combination of the stores being closed for the holidays and then miserable, rainy weather after they reopened, we finally emerged today to go downtown to walk around the city centre, do a little shopping, and see the decorations before they take them down later this week.

Basel Rathaus at Christmas

Basel Rathaus at Christmas


Matthew at Marktplatz

Matthew at Marktplatz


Aude at Marktplatz

Aude at Marktplatz


Entrance to Marktplatz

The entrance to Marktplatz


Street scene

Christmas lights

Street scene

Street scene


Fountain with Christmas lights

Fountain with Christmas lights


Christmas lights at the Hotel Basel

Christmas lights at the Hotel Basel


Christmas tree at the Hotel Basel

Christmas tree at the Hotel Basel


Lights on tree

A creative use of bottles to decorate the tree outside a bar


A little later than usual due to my extended stay in Singapore, this weekend marked our annual Christmas-tree-decorating party (my annual Mark Twain excuse for saying “come decorate our Christmas tree, it’ll be lots of fun!” and watching as others do all the dirty work).

There was mulled wine and mince pies, good friends and a lot of swearing at some very stubborn Christmas lights. Still, it’s what makes Christmas what it is, right?

Struggling with the Christmas lights

Struggling with the Christmas lights

Sandro sensibly takes a seat and watches the mayhem from a distance...

Sandro sensibly takes a seat and watches the mayhem from a distance…

Matthew demonstrates a novel approach at untangling the Christmas lights

Matthew demonstrates a novel approach at untangling the Christmas lights

Matthew & Anne-Laure, hard at work on the lights

Matthew & Anne-Laure, hard at work on the lights

A candidate for "Stuff on my Cat" if ever I saw one. Daisy didn't really enter into the Christmas spirit this year...

A candidate for “Stuff on my Cat” if ever I saw one. Daisy didn’t really enter into the Christmas spirit this year…

Neil "supervises"

Neil “supervises”

Anne Laure, hard at work decorating the tree

Anne Laure, hard at work decorating the tree

Neil ends up being decorated himself. Awww, pretty.

Neil ends up being decorated himself. Awww, pretty.

We've subsequently reduced Aude's sugar intake

We’ve subsequently reduced Aude’s sugar intake

Neil didn't quite get the hang of "decorating the tree", preferring to focus his efforts elsewhere.

Neil didn’t quite get the hang of “decorating the tree”, preferring to focus his efforts elsewhere.

Not a happy camper.

Not a happy camper.

Finished at last!

Finished at last!

Satisfaction at last!

Satisfaction at last!

Jean Michel looks skeptical about the whole thing...

Jean Michel looks skeptical about the whole thing…

After all our excitement on Friday night, we decided to take things easy on Saturday. After spending the morning with the police, we went to Oriel for brunch then headed out to the Kings Road to do a little pre-Christmas shopping. Later in the afternoon, we met up with Aude’s brother, Jerome, and grabbed the train back to Canterbury where we had a quiet dinner at our place.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we took the opportunity to put the tree up on Sunday and invited a few friends around to help us decorate it. The cats did their best to help out as well, Calypso supervising from the corner while Daisy jumped right in the middle of things. She spent her day alternatively sleeping in the box of decorations and being pissed off with Jerome (why, we’ll never know).

Mulled wine, Christmas carols on the stereo, and a fire burning away on the TV (hey, these are modern times and I don’t have a fireplace) – just what we needed to get into the Christmas spirit. Just a reminder: three weeks until Christmas!

Trimming the Christmas tree

Matthew and Jerome begin the annual “struggle of the lights” as we try to get the strings around the tree. Note the concentration on our faces…

Trimming the Christmas tree

A crowd of onlookers come to cheer us on!

Trimming the Christmas tree

Not quite like Christmas past – this year it’s all about “Fireplace: The Movie”

Trimming the Christmas tree

Is it just me, or are Anne-Laure and Neil kissing in every photo of them I take?

Trimming the Christmas tree

Is there anyone more excited about Christmas than MG? I doubt it!

Trimming the Christmas tree

MG hangs an ornament on the tree

Trimming the Christmas tree

Aude joins in the fun

Trimming the Christmas tree

Since Jerome’s mother claims that the only updates she gets about her son come from my blog, we’ve decided to start photographing him ‘ransom-style’ with a current newspaper to prove that he is, in fact, still alive.