Look who I found at the brocki. Eeeeeek, I love him so much. He was a little beat up – on a music box with some sad broken angels. I cleaned him up and gave him a new woodland home. The angels have taken up residence in our Christmas village.

Brian is always buying these mini stollen breads this time of year. Stollen was new to me when we first moved to Switzerland. They are really rich and tasty with nuts and dried fruit and bits of marzipan. And when you eat some you leave a trail of powdered sugar. When I came across a…

We had a very relaxed Swiss Christmas weekend. Swiss Christmas is our family Christmas – when we have fondue and give each other gifts. It’s sort of nice to have it out of the way, shopping done, kids content. And now we have one last week of school before we fly to the US. 

Claire had a string ensemble concert tonight and she did a lovely job and I was proud. I don’t have a photo or a video because I was enjoying the music. While I was busy listening to the performance these parents were busy being more than a bit distracting. Can we please put our phones…

We went back to the Sihlsprung for a really pleasant walk on Sunday. It was only a little bit chilly. The sun shone into the woods at a sharp angle. Brian made good hearty sandwiches for lunch (as he usually does). And there was so much beautiful green moss. I took lots of photos and…

Ok we’re friends with baking again. Bea and I made crullers on Saturday morning. The nice thing is that they are like doughnuts but they are made with an eggy dough that isn’t yeasted and so you don’t have to wait for it tor rise. Bea was the fry master and she did a great…

All the trinkets and baubles and knickknacks are out and the Christmas music is playing. And that makes me happy. We switched things up this year and put Bea’s Lego train under the tree. It’s a very Lego Christmas. Here’s the part that makes Brian happy – his beer advent calendar. I hope you too…

I had a baking fail today. I followed the instructions but something went wrong. There’s nothing to be done but to get a fork and try to take care of the evidence as soon as possible. I even enlisted the girls to try to clean up the gooey-chocolate-supposed-to-be-brownies-mess. This is a recipe from a book…