We went to Germany this weekend for the Stuttgart Christmas market. It’s only 3 hours from Zurich. I love the Christmas markets at night – the lights are beautiful and there are interesting things like this gigantic nutcracker everywhere you look.
Here it is in the day. The girls were happy with plenty of sweet treats – and it’s nice that there are some cheep trinkets for them to buy like little wooden ornaments and pretty marbles.
There were several kids rides – Claire and Bea went on a ferris wheel and then the three of us rode a mini train. It’s all so charming and cute.
Brian took the girls to a Christmas market in Einsiedeln – it’s across the lake and up into the hills. There were lots of photos of the girls smiling and goofing around so I think they had a good time.
We like snow… well, actually Claire’s not sure about it sometimes.
Samichlaus visited Bea’s school and left oranges, peanuts, chocolates and the ingredients to make bread people. Typical Samichlaus gifts. She likes me to take a picture of all her acomplishments lately.
We printed another brilliant free coloring page from Mr. Printables. A giant Christmas tree.
Tonight was our little town’s Christmas market. It was snowing really, really hard. Brian and I enjoyed a little Gluhwein and we let the girls stay in the bike trailer with their sausages and nutella crepes. We all came back with piles of snow on our heads.
Counting the days ’til we can be close to everyone we love.
Bea lost her third tooth today. It came out when we were sledding, but because she acts so odd about things like this I didn’t hear about it until after we got home. She was hanging out and playing in the snow at the bottom of the hill for a long time and then suddenly she told me she wanted to go home. We’d been there a long time and Claire was tired so off we went. Bea was acting quiet but she wouldn’t tell me what was going on – typical behavior for Bea. Turns out the tooth had fallen out a long time before on the sledding hill and she was afraid of losing it so she held it in her mouth for the whole (long) walk home. Isn’t that weird? That’s my darling Bea.
Oh and just to complete the tooth update. Little copy-cat Claire apparently has a wiggley tooth too. Ha.
Everyday before she has a nap Claire and I read a book. She has been insisting on The Three Little Pigs – which she calls The Wolf Story – for a couple months now. When the wolf comes into the story she gets under the covers and says aaaaah! When we come to the page with the close-up illustration of the wolf she puts her fingers by his sharp teeth and pretends he’s biting her – ouch she says.
It’s funny because Bea would never ever want to hear this story. It’s the version of the story that comes right out and says “the wolf ate up the first little pig”. Bea would be unable to get over the disturbing aspect of the story – the wolf eating the pig and then at the end the pig eating the wolf for supper.
Brian has been in the US all week for work and for a quick visit with his parents. We miss him.
It wasn’t a bad week – it’s just that I’m a little sick of talking to little people. And tired of the stream of commands and pleads that come out of my mouth everyday. I feel like I have to say things twelve times before anyone responds. Here’s what I sound like – get up, eat your breakfast, get dressed, brush your teeth, put your shoes/coat/hat/mittens on, wash your hands, eat your lunch, eat your dinner, take your plate to the kitchen, don’t make a mess, pick up your mess, put your pajamas on, brush your teeth, go to sleep. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
I want to put my feet up and watch some TV now, but the only things on are a bunch of bad British TV shows (including a darts championship), Crocaodile Dundee II and Murder She Wrote – truely.
On the positive side – we spent a bunch of time eagerly anticipating Christmas. We watched the Grinch cartoon and the classic Rudolph a bunch. We talked about Santa and about seeing Grandpas and Grandmas and cousins soon.
Claire has been very into cooking I gave her some beans to play with and she sat there in the kitchen spooning them back and forth into different bowls for a really long time. I can’t wait to see her face when she opens the little play kitchen I found for her for Christmas.
We made some glittery crafts and put up some decorations.
And we started our Christmas book countdown – the girls open up one of our Christmas books each night – up until our Swiss Christmas.
We’ll go into the city tomorrow night so the girls can see the pretty lights. And then Brian will be home soon. Lots of things to look forward to.
Laowai 