School. School. Ski! School. School. Ski! Church.

This is how Henry counts down his week. He's doing fine by the way. His mood has been better and there has been less struggle to go to school. He's a good boy. Elsa is also doing a good job. She had to start going two afternoons in addition to her four mornings. That's a lot for a four year old.

Henry has Cross-Country skiing on Wednesday (no school on Wednesday in Geneva). He leaves at 8:00 AM and doesn't get home until 5:00 PM. He loves it. He looks forward to it all week. Since we arrived in Switzerland in July he has wanted to be in the mountains and the snow. I'm glad it has been all that he was hoping/expecting.

Elsa and Henry had their first down-hill ski lesson this week and they loved it. Henry mastered the bunny hill and even went off and stuck the jump they had set up. Elsa was a bit more reserved, but also had a great time. She is fearless on the sled.



We met up with some friends for skiing and of course ended the day with some delicious hot chocolate.

As for church. . . it is their day to speak English freely with friends. They've never enjoyed church as much. In fact yesterday ended up being there for six hours. When we were finally ready to go, I couldn't find them anywhere. Apparantly there was a video broadcast for the YAs and Henry and Elsa had sat down on the last row to watch it. They just hadn't had enough. ha ha.

Aujourd'hui c'est la rentree

They say the newness of a move abroad wears off at about six months. That is the expat trend. Henry is definitely following the trend. The last two weeks before Christmas break he really didn't want to go to school (except for his intense French school-where he's with a few other kids learning French together). Now that the break is over, he still is having a hard time. This isn't normal I don't like school. It's lonelier and sadder than that. It's been sad to see him struggle. Gratefully, we make it out the door. Even if we are a few minutes late.

Monday afternoon I encouraged him to go promising he'd come home to these-

It worked.

This morning was harder. I try not to bribe. He has to go to school.

When he came home he was fine, and laughing with his sister.

In the break down of all former relationships if this one is strengthened, it is worth it.

Henry is a happy well-liked boy. His family has will buoy his confidence and he'll have friends at school soon.

Ansel and the Dress-Up Chest

There really wasn't ever any question whether he would love it as much as his siblings. Here is some proof.

Most of the time we're just grateful he'll put clothes on!

Has anyone had a child completely potty-trained, but won't wear underwear? I'm not too worried. He's barely two.

Since we're on the topic of "The Booch," each of our children has enjoyed the paci. And, we have taken similar pictures of each of them with the pacis in their mouth. Ansel took it up a notch by successful shoving three in his mouth. Ahhh, for the love of a paci-or "babi" as Ansel would say.

l'Escalade

We had the privilege of enjoying another Swiss Holiday this year. The city of Geneva celebrates their success over an invasion from the French. A very worthy cause I would have to agree!
We began with a history lesson and tour of the city with Sophie. She is the lovely lady that helped us get settled here. Shops all over are filled with these chocolate pots.

The tradition goes something like this: The French were nearing the outer walls of Geneva. A lady was preparing some soup and heard the intruders. So. . . she poured the soup on their heads and deterred them from making it up any further. Apparantly it also bought the neighbors some time to get the ammo ready. Here's to soup for ammo!
Now they celebrate with chocolate pots that they fill with marzipan vegetables.

On the day of l'Escalade, it was December 12. Everyone eats vegetable soup. At Henry and Elsa's school the kids all brought vegetables and they cut them up and made the soup to serve at the party.
Apparantly soup wasn't enough for this party. They also sold hot dogs-which were very popular. Can you find Elsa and Henry in this crowd?

The afternoon was freezing! We ended up leaving the playground early. The whole thing was on the playground. Poor Ansel was sooo cold.

After school we had a party at our house with some friends. I forgot to take pictures. It was more of the Christmas variety.

After our party was over we head straight to the church for more veggie soup and a celebration with the Stake.
Somehow the dressing-up for children invaded the Escalade tradition. (I bet they were jealous of our Halloween). The kids really don't need a reason to dress-up. They had a great time.

So count them, three parties in one day! What fun.

We waited until Liz and Chris arrived on Monday the 15th to break our own pot of chocolate.

Escalade was a good time. Maybe next year we'll join much of the others in the city for the fun run!

The Last Day of Fall

I've got a lot of catching-up to do. The Holidays have kept us very busy.

We spent one of our last fall days at the neighborhood park climbing trees and building in the sand. We like the neighborhood park. They've got a great tire swing and a wading pool in the summer. There is also a great promenade for bike riding. We'll try that out when it gets a little warmer. Elsa rode her bike the other day. Ansel got a like a bike for Christmas. He's looking forward to trying it out.

Now that most of our activities are sledding, skiing, ice skating and indoors. These fall days seem so far away.

Christmas Cards

We're about to take the holiday cards down. It was such a thrill to receive so many over our first December abroad. Thanks to all of you who sent your trans-Atlantic joy. You made our holidays great!

Can spot yours in this picture?

February Plans

The kids have an entire week off school in February. It's also the week of Elsa's birthday. So we've book a hotel near the Neuschwanstein Castle, and a few days in Munich. We made sure the hotel in Munich has a pool. For the kids, pools are the trip highlights no matter where we go. We were hoping to do a tour of the BMW factory, too (Rick Steves says it's very cool - you get close enough to get hit by sparks from the welding bots). But we found out the minimum age to take a tour is 7. Maybe Greg and Henry can go and Henry can stand on his tip toes. We're really looking forward to this!