Elise's Singing Performances

Elise sings with her school choir, and really enjoys it.  They performed at the school's Holiday Market on December 1st, then again in downtown Zürich at the "Singing Christmas Tree" on December 2nd.

The Singing Christmas Tree is really very cool - it's a structure with 7 levels in the shape of a giant tree - covered with real pine boughs and white lights. The singers dress in green cloaks, red scarves, hats and gloves, and stand on the different levels so they look like ornaments on the tree. It's in a cute little Platz off the Bahnhofstrasse, and there are little booths set up with food, drink and a carousel. It is the classic European Christmas feel, and it was very neat to be a part of it.

Elise looked like the happiest member of the choir at both of these performances.  She really loves music, and it makes me so happy to see her enjoying something so much!

We all had fun watching too - this is Nathan with his friend Jan (he's in Nathan's grade at school, and his sister Zofia is in Elise's class).

Meredith's First Full Haircut

At 10 1/2 months, it was time for Meredith to have a proper haircut.  On Dec. 1st, she had a nice trim, but still has plenty of locks to show off!

First Snow This Year

Our first snow came this year on November 30th!  It was quite the wait, since last year it snowed in later October.  Since I had been working on booking our ski vacation for early 2010, I was looking forward to it.  It is absolutely beautiful here when it snows - and looking out our window into the garden covered with snow is magical.  Here's William in the garden.

Samichlaus Parade

This year's Samichlaus parade was just as fun as last year's.  We stopped on the bridge to have our picture taken with the Grossmünster church in the background.  And, the kids collected plenty of gingerbread cookies from Samichlaus and Schmützli.

Thanksgiving

Of course, Thanksgiving is not celebrated here in Switzerland.  But, we did end up having a few festivities.

Dave and I went into Elise's classroom during the day on Thursday to talk about Thanksgiving and how we celebrate it in America, and read a story to the kids about the first Thanksgiving.  They then made a craft that showed what they are thankful for.  It was really fun to see the kids and spend time in Nathan's class.

On Saturday, we got together with some American families from our ward and had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  We met at a Waldhütte (Forest House), which was really nice, and had lots of great food, followed by a few rounds of charades.

Here's a photo of Meredith trying to reach the pumpkin cake for dessert!

Brother and Sister

William and Meredith look so much alike - looking at Will's baby pictures is like looking at Meredith!  William loves to help with Meredith.  It's good that she's such a mellow baby...

Bathtime

Meredith is growing so fast - she's already 10 months old!  We didn't have enough good photos of bathtime, so here are a few shots when Elise helped me give Mer a bath.

Ice Skating

We have an ice skating rink (Kunsteisbahn) 5 minutes from our house.  Nathan took lessons for about 4 weeks with a couple of his friends from school - before we all decided that 4 years old is too young for ice skating lessons!  But, we have fun going there as a family!  Nathan is getting more comfortable on the ice all the time.  And Elise also got a pair of skates for her birthday, so she can go anytime!  William really wanted to try it, so we rented skates for him, but he said it was just too slippery!

Hedgehog Hunting

Nathan has been learning about hedgehogs at school, so we went on a family hedgehog hunt in the forest next to our house.  The kids even built a nest for the hedgehogs!

Elise Turns 10

What!  We have a child who is in the double digits!  How did that happen so fast?

Elise turned 10 years old on November 7th, and she celebrated with a party that very day with her friends from school.  They had made headbands, played karaoke, pictionary, and other games, then had lunch.  She has a really nice group of friends!  And, as you can see from the photos, Nathan, Will and Meredith were very involved in the party too!

Halloween 2009!

We had another great Halloween - pretty amazing we can have so much fun on a holiday that isn't even celebrated in Switzerland!  But, with the English-speaking members of our church congregation, as well as Will's bilingual preschool and Nathan and Elise's international school, there is plenty of celebrating going on.

 

Nathan was Anakin Skywalker, Will was a pirate for some parties and a knight for others (but always with a light saber), and Elise and Meredith were both flamenco dancers (with authentic costumes from our recent trip to Spain)!  Mom was a hippy (I've gotten a lot of use out of that costume!) and Dad was a doctor.

 

 

We went to a fun Halloween carnival at church the week before Halloween.  Dave provided his "Stick the Face on the Pumpkin" for our family's game booth once again - even crazier than last year (he likes to blindfold the big kids and spin them around so they walk half way across the gym in the wrong direction...)!  All the kids had fun, but Nathan was the most methodical, visiting every booth in exact order.

 

Will had a dress-up day at preschool, and the whole family went to the big ICS party on Friday night, Oct. 30th.  They had trunk-or-treating with the trunks (or "boots", as they're called in British English) decorated to the hilt. 

 

This year we even carved a pumpkin and put it out in front of our house on top of our mailbox.  It was a nice jack-o-lantern if I do say so myself!  People often walk along our street to get to the forest trails.  One day when I looked out our kitchen window, I saw three older ladies standing near our mailbox studying the jack-o-lantern.  It looked like one of the Swiss ladies was explaining this strange Halloween tradition to the other two Swiss women.  So funny!  But, I think the pumpkin did some good, because we actually had one family of trick-or-treaters this year!