There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

There really is no place like home for the holidays. The best thing about being home was spending time with friends and family. Because we had missed everyone so much, it made this Christmas all the more special.

We flew in on a Thursday night and by Saturday, our house was decked out in Christmas decorations and we threw a party for all our close friends... we were able to do that because of my two brother-in-laws... they were a great help!

Some highlights of what we did:
Had Christmas morning at our home :)

Ate at the Angus Barn (our favorite restaurant!) with Nate's family... a little Diering tradition.

Took a Solc family photo for the first time in awhile...

Hung out with Nate's brother, Matt, and the new addition to the Diering family, Buddy!

Jake and Buddy loved to play!

Sometimes it got a little rough though...

Played with Camden, my sister's son. He just LOVED his Uncle Nate! My sister called me yesterday and told me that Camden is STILL talking about Nate. That doesn't make me jealous at all... haha.

Got some long-awaited Raybans for Christmas... a big surprise from Nate!

My little brother and Chelsea got ENGAGED!!!!

We wrote an announcement on the chalkboard at Starbucks. :)

The Happy Couple...

Camden, being cute!


Got to go with Joy to Camden's art class... I think I enjoyed it as much as he did!

Had lunch with some of my favorite Brier Creek Tennis ladies... it was so good to spend time with them! Teresa, in the purple sweater, is a faithful blog reader and commenter! Thanks, Teresa! :)

Girls night with some of my favorite girls... Katherine, Parker, & Shae. Katherine came over, even with her one-month old baby, Haley (in the picture). She is SO precious!

Once Nate went back to Switzerland, I spent most of my time hanging out with family. I love my siblings SO much!! I am so blessed to have them. Me & Josef:

Me & Joy:

All 3 of us... not really sure why my brother's making that face...

I love this picture... it's so happy!

Culture Shock in America..... What!?

Nate and I love that feeling of just stepping off the plane to be back home again. After being gone for almost a whole YEAR, we were overjoyed to be able to be with friends and family around Christmas. The interesting thing after being gone for a year is that you have a different look on life in America. Little things that used to be "normal" to us became a bit of a shock. It's a little hard to explain, but here is a list of some things that 'shocked' us while being home...

-Everything is in English! (You're probably thinking, duh, but this was SO nice!)
-More things, like signs and labels, are now also written in Spanish
-Everyone was speaking English (Another duh, but it was also oh, so nice)
-The majority of people are extremely friendly everywhere you go
-Grocery stores are massive
-Wal-Mart is overwhelming
-We still love Target
-Everything seemed so inexpensive (compared to Europe's prices)
-A Chick-fil-A sandwich, Bojangles biscuit, and sweet tea taste even better than we remembered
-We have missed free refills, ice, free ketchup, and unlimited napkins!
-Portion sizes at restaurants are too big
-Toilets are much lower than in Switzerland (weird, but true)
-Raleigh seemed so spread out after living in such a condensed city
-We spent too much time in the car
-Everyone's houses felt HUGE
-Most Americans (including us) have too much stuff
-Life is more comfortable... sometimes a little too comfortable... and at the same time, too busy

After being away from American culture for awhile, it's easier for Nate and I see how our lives now compare to before. We realized that it was harder to evaluate our lifestyles when we lived in the same place with the same routine. And we are thankful that we have had the opportunity to see that sometimes we lived a life that was a little too comfortable and complacent. We love Raleigh so much because it is our home, but when we come back we hope to take things that we've learned back with us... like:

-Simplicity
-Spend more time with family and friends
-Spend more time outside
-Watch less TV
-Don't take everything in life so seriously
-Practice more faith in God
-Eat more ice cream (in moderation of course!)
-Exercise more (since we'll be eating more ice cream)
-Challenge ourselves more... learn new things, read more books
-Travel more in the States
-Take more trips to the beach and mountains (since they're so close!)
-Be more involved in church and outreach to the community

The list could go on, but these are just a few things that we have learned and I challenge you to do these things too!!

Sorry there are no pictures, but I promise to put up a post of pictures and stories from our time at home soon!

Home for the Holidays... Sneak Peek

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a Happy New Year... :)

The Basel Swiss Indoors Tennis Tournament!

Every year, Basel has a professional indoor tennis tournament and since Roger Federer is from Basel, people come from all over to see him play here. It is crazy to think that he was once a ball boy at this very tournament. I wonder if he ever thought to himself... I'm going to win this tournament one day... I'm sure he did.

Again, since Roger Federer is playing in his home town, it is very difficult to get seats and they are very expensive! So, I thought it was going to be impossible for me to go, but when the time of the tournament came, I decided to go to the arena and just see if I could still buy a ticket. Much to my surprise, there was a guy selling tickets right in front and I bought mine for cheaper than face value... I was ecstatic! I was going to be watching professional tennis ALL day!! The only unfortunate thing was that Nate could not join me because of work, but he was happy for me that I could go. He's so sweet. :)

You could watch from two different courts: The center court in the arena, or court 2, which was no bigger than a high school gym and you could sit wherever you wanted. I liked court 2 because I always meandered my way to the front row! Here, I'm watching Korolev. A Russian who's ranked top 50 in the world. And he's Ana Kornikova's cousin!

The guy you see in the picture is Korolev's coach and brother. I ended up talking to him and then he got Korolev to give me a signed tennis ball! He said I was good luck because he was losing and then I came in and he started to win, and ended up winning in a thrid-set tiebreak.

After Korolev's match, the Bryan Brothers (top American doubles team) came in to warm up. I was excited to see them, but I didn't watch their match because Federer's match was supposed to start any minute on the other court. Court 2 cleared out real fast when it was time for Federer's match... poor Bryan Brothers, but I'm sure they understood what was going on!

And there he is.... ROGER FEDERER. I was freaking out inside because he's been my favorite player for a long time and I never imagined being able to see him play!

In action...

More action... I loved seeing how effortless and eloquent he is... even more so in real life than on TV!

The Federer match seemed to go by way too fast, but once it was done, I quickly went to the other court to see Gonzales play.

Gonzales is a top ranked player and really entertaining to watch. Federer and Gonzales were also playing singles at this tournament. I only had the chance to see them play doubles, but I actually think it's more fun because they are less serious and their personality comes out a bit more. Gonzales and his partner were so nice. They came over and signed autographs after their match. :) And I got theirs right on their picture in the yearbook that you see at the top of the post. I was a little disappointed that Federer didn't come over and sign it when I tried to get his attention, but maybe next time. (haha)

DJOKOVIC! I also love to watch him play. His singles match was the last one of the night. He dominated in straight sets. He was on fire!

Look at that concentration...

The stadium is not very big, which was nice. I walked up to the top to take a picture of the whole court, and this is as high as I could go.

Then I went down close because a lot of seats opened up at the end of the match. Some girl asked me to take her picture, so she did the same for me! I was SO happy to have the privilege to see such amazing tennis... it is something I will NEVER forget!

Herbstmesse: Basel's Fall Fair

The Herbstmesse has been a Basel tradition for over 500 years! I'm not sure what it was like back then, but now, it is similar to the State Fair in NC... lots of rides, good food, and fun. It is spread out over the city in seven squares and it doesn't cost a dime to walk through. Nate and I took advantage of that and went several nights just to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. One of the squares is just a couple blocks from our apt. building, so it was very convenient. Here are some pictures of the different times we went:

The Ferris Wheel

The views of Basel from the Ferris Wheel (taken on two different nights)

Some of our friends who are living in Lausanne (the French part of Switzerland) came to visit one weekend to come to the Herbstmesse. Bottom left: Jonathan & Ashley... Ashley is scared of heights so she is closing her eyes. Next to them: Our friend, Adam. Jonathan and Adam are both from NC!

Adam and Jonathan rode some more rides while Nate and I stayed back with Ashley. I think she is still laughing at high how we just were!
I also went to the fair with some of the high school girls... that I've met from church. Noelle (pictured below) and I went on the Romania mission trip together... and I just love her to death now! We rode some rides and ate some good food, like chocolate covered strawberries.. yum!

I forgot that most high school kids have no fear when it comes to riding rides. Well, let's just say... I'm definitely not in high school anymore! I would not ride the following...

Noelle, Hannah, and Hannah's little brother Alex all tried to get me to go on this ride, but I refused.... waaay to scary for me! I know, I'm a wimp. :)

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and having an amazing fall fair makes it even better. I took this shot on the last night. The reflection over the Rhine was so beautiful!

Snow Day in the Alps with Teran & JJ

When our friends, Teran & JJ returned back to Basel after being in Rome, they were a little tired, but we mustered up enough energy to "hike" in the Alps. Little did we know we would run into massive amounts of snow on our hiking trail! But it was okay because we ended up having a blast in the snow!

Instead of hiking, we decided to build a snowman! It was actually really hard to make because the snow was so fresh and powdery, but eventually, we did it! We named him Snowie or Alpie or something... we couldn't decide on one :)

We also had snow ball fights! The boys disappeared for awhile and then, out of nowhere, they came running at us with ready-made snowballs and tried to hit us with them, but we were too fast. :) You can see the boys' attack in this picture (from left to right):

We also hid in trees... okay, that was just JJ. Click on the picture to see if you can find him! Teran's not really sure what he's doing...

We weren't the only ones having fun in the snow, Jake also loved it! He ran around so much that he was absolutely exhausted on the train ride home! (see the pics at the end)

After a great day of playing in the snow, we were cold and hungry, so we went to a great Swiss restaurant to warm up and eat some yummy food.

The plate on the right is a Swiss dish called rosti. It's hash browns, lots of cheese and an egg on top... it is delicious!

Our last group picture together. Teran is great at using self timers on cameras. :) Look at the snow line on the mountains!

The skies really cleared in the evening and it was simply beautiful. I love this picture of Teran & JJ...
As I said, Jake was wiped out after all the running around in the snow. Usually, he freaks out on train rides (ie. doesn't sleep), but this time he couldn't fight it any longer. The fact that he has to be in a "bag" on Swiss trains makes these photos just that much funnier!