Laowai

American style:

Swiss Style:

We are blessed with one of those cold but sunny days today. I could just lie down and bask in the trapezoids of sunshine on our floor.

 

I finished a nightie for Bea:

Bea made a snow angel:

We’re off to the sledding hill this afternoon.

since we last wandered around the Swiss countryside.

Dave and Kim sent these ballarina skirts for the girls and they have barely taken them off since we got home. They even slept in them for a couple nights. 

See you next year little mushrooms. The only good thing about taking down the Christmas tree is the pine smell that you get when you vacuum up the stray pine needles.

Next year these ornaments will be put up in a new-to-us house. Because, as most of you know, we are moving back to the US. I’d like to put the move out of my head for a while and just enjoy our time in Switzerland, but really it’s on my mind all the time. Everytime we do something special here I think about how it is the last time we will do that in Switzerland. Each seaon and holiday and tradition is a good-bye.

Woosh, sigh, giggle, snore, sniff and just like that our trip back to Michigan was over so quickly.

I did a really bad job taking photos on this trip – I guess I was too busy relaxing.

Thank you Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunties and Uncles and friends for making it so fun and special for us. 

And now on to 2013!

From the LA Times Blog

We’re off to Michigan!

I bought a big gingerbread man cookie cutter at the Stuttgart Christmas market so we had to try it out.

We had our Swiss Christmas on Sunday and Bea’s big gift was a two wheel scooter. I remember so well when we got her first scooter for her and it doesn’t seem that long ago. She seemed so big then and her new scooter gave her a new independence. But of course she seems big now too. Sometimes I watch her and she seems even older than she is – she can be so thoughtful and insightful. Slow down love – slow down.

And then there is this little one – she claimed Bea’s three wheel scooter long ago. She says scooda and her fearlessness scares me.