2023 is off to a quiet start. Brian spent all week in Switzerland for work. He sent pictures of the pretzel he got at the train station and of the chocolate aisle at the grocery store. Gosh, I miss those things! I took a walk at the Chicago Botanic Garden twice this week. One day…

I have a few more photos from the second part of our trip to Costa Rica. We went to the Pacific coast side to a town called Jaco.  Our hotel was right along the beach and unlike Monteverde – it was hot. We climbed up a hill on the edge of town to a ruined…

Goodbye sweet ornaments and trees and houses and shiny glass balls. Good-bye dear deers. And good-bye to this twee little angel that I found in Costa Rica. 

We just returned from a vacation to Costa Rica.  We flew into San Juan and then drove to the mountains – to Monteverde and its cloud forest.  On the first day we hiked all around the the Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. The rainforest was fascinating and a little intimidating. It's so dense and wet and…

I'm so bad at taking photos at Christmas. But here are a few to prove we had a nice time in Michigan. Games were played. Sparkly things sparkled. Laughs were laughed. Cookies were eaten. Dogs were scratched behind the ears. More cookies were eaten. Moments were had.

We had a lovely family Christmas – we call it our Swiss Christmas. We started out with a big breakfast and a walk. Claire and I did some baking. I set the table with my favorite table linens (Vera Neumann). And Brian made some delicious fondue. Next year this room will be painted green. Stay…

Here are the girls and Brian at the Stuttgart Christmas market. We bought those stuffed animals for them and they were so happy. Those were the days… when it was so easy to make them giddy and excited. 

Brian has been traveling to Boulder, Colorado lately. He sent me this photo of the Hotel Boulderado where he has been staying. We stayed there many years ago and it was so charming. Wish I could go with him on these work trips. I finished this scarf for Brian. Need to get a photo of…

What is it about holiday decorations – why do we do it? It seems so silly to get out a bunch of trinkets each year. Silly to place useless items around the house just to clutter up the space. And then we have to pack it all up at the end of the season and…

We've gotten a little snow and it was very windy today. We all needed a piping hot cup of cocoa when we got home.