Thanksgiving in Switzerland - Celebrating Inside

The chalet near Les Mosses is a very old farmhouse but has been renovated to add modern plumbing and electricity. Consequently, our experiences living there for a winter week-end were nothing like the original farm family. We could take our showers in the mornings and did not have to rely on chamber pots or outhouses. The heating is still done all by wood stove, though. There is a great ceramic stove just off the kitchen that puts off heat like a jet engine. The chalet was either blazing hot or freezing cold....depending on the status of the fire.

We also had a few options to pass the time that were probably not available back in the day. First off, there was a ping-pong table up where the hay loft would have been. Nothing like a ping-pong tournament to waste a winter night. Also, as shown in the photo below, we could kill time playing the card game PIT. Saturday was the day of turkey dinner. The intro picture shows Tim whipping up a pumpkin pie with the turkey just out of the oven in the foreground. Picture below has Joe preparing the potatos. Dinner was a team effort to prepare and a team effort to consume...as shown by the second picture below.

We had to drag food up that mountain for the other days as well. The picture below shows Friday night's two menu items - the fondue pot and raclette cheese. These are the most traditionally Swiss dishes that you can fix. There is no better way to spend a cold evening than to fill your belly to the bursting point with hot cheese and meat and bread.