Fireworks

Somehow managed to stay sober on New Years Eve (useless drinking Champagne from a bottle). Climbed up on Carlton Hill with a bottle of champers in the cold chill for five minutes of the grand fireworks spectacle.

New Year's Eve

Chris and I headed up to Edinburgh for a couple of days and joined the crowds up on Arthur's Seat.

Grandmas

Kiddies get into the groove at Grandmas.

Boxing Day

Games were fun on Boxing Day with cousins.

Crackers!

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Nannie's homemade Christmas crackers!

To fly or not to fly

This is perhaps the longest Bea's plane remained in the air. It just wouldn't fly. Don't worry papa, it seems to be another Christmas tradition!!

Present overload

After the early years of struggling against the consumer Christmas, we went slightly overboard with presents. No more online shopping!

Grandparents

The nippers were happy to see their grandparents!

Off to the UK

Off to England for an end of year rest and funny Christmas frollicks! Ili kept saying we were going 'to' Christmas, rather than 'for' Christmas. Funny that she thought it was a place.

Kindergarten Woodlands

The last Friday of the month, the Kindergarten goes to the woods. This time was for the Christmas visit and parents were invited while the kids played games sitting around the 'waldsofa' and then off to play. Bea and his buddy Vincent built a shelter. 

Christmas Shopping

Piano lesson cancelled so headed into town for a tad of Christmas shopping late afternoon. Didn't achieve much however, as too many attractions to distract us all. Gluhwein was nice!! Bea found the candyfloss (or 'cotton sugar' as it's called here) machine totally fascinating and watched it spin floss for an eternity, and then there was the traditional "Singing Christmas Tree", full of children singing their socks off, so we didn't move too far. Anyhow, Bea said he would like something nice to eat, so Ili wants to get Bea a tin of baked beans for Christmas, so I think we're sorted!

Woodland walk

Headed up to Zuriberg for a walk in the woods and some fresher air! Bea is supposed to sledge Monday afternoon with Kindergarten, but with the snow fast disappearing, we wanted to see how likely it would be. Kids had fun skidding on the remaining icy patches.

Lake view

This is how the city looked today from the roof terrace. We're still in snow, and Bea and Ili were shovelling tonnes of the white stuff around on the terrace. . .

Bea learns third language

As Bea doesn't have Swiss parents, he's one of the children in Kindergarten that has extra Swiss-German language support and has been having this every Tuesday this school year (all last school year). It seems he's moved on to learning High German now which will be great for next year's school, so this will be his third spoken language.

Snowy spielgruppe

This is how Ili's Spielgruppe looked this morning . .  . white! Even the trams were having difficulty running to schedule (we had to wait at least 10 minutes, he he he), and that is simply unheard of!!

Ben Howard

No snowdrift would have kept me from seeing Ben Howard, although the jet lag was too much for Chris, so I called up a girl friend and we had a real treat . . . . He's totally amazing (I'm an even bigger fan than I was last week) and just what was needed after being alone with the kiddies for two weeks! And a walk home through falling snow — the type that silences a city — was magical.

Sami Claus comes to the Hof

As it was Saint Nicholas's Day on the 6th, the annual Sami Claus visit to the Hof was tonight accompanied by Schmutzli his 'dirty little helper' and their two donkeys. After a very long speech from Santa and the donkeys getting restless, kids getting frozen, and adults getting pissed on Gluhwein, Sami Claus handed over the usual heavy muslin bags of nuts, chocs and tangerines. Then back to a neighbour's (downstairs from us) who hosted a children's party with traditional German games. All good festive fun!

Snowy balls

A Saturday shop wading through the snow, and it was so cold we had to take shelter in the cafe for warm milk and pastries just to thaw out the toes. On the way up, Bea was playing on two enormous snow balls in the school playground, before I realised how he was climbing up on them — it was an of course a giant penis!

and it snowed, and it snowed . . .

Bea on the roof terrace catching snowflakes.

Bam bam, a work plan

A fairly new cafe around the corner, Bam Bam, offers a pirate play area for children to play. Marianna (Maia's mother) and I have been hatching a plan for a while, and we've declared the cafe a work zone for us two mums to get some work done in daylight hours (her parents work in Japan) and we'll share looking after the two tots in this time. We'll see how it goes.

Spot the difference

Papa is still in the depths of Borneo, and we're still in deep snow-eo.

Advent cookies

A very creative neighbour made advent biscuits for all the children (big and small), and Bea and Ili got to have theirs today.  

Sledging in the city

We managed a couple of hours sledging this morning (although Bea and Ili would have happily stayed all day) before our butts started to freeze. Headed to Irchel a.k.a. "duck park", which is just up the road in the city where sledging is super gentle and thought it would be a good idea to let Bea try for the first time on his own.  He did great, but we'll have to wait until papa is back before we try anything steeper as three of us on one sledge isn't an option anymore—we're just too big!

Papa and his plane

This is what papa has been up to in Borneo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_sXVLax_c8

Found a snow hole

Found the perfect retreat from the snow today—all day—as we caught up with Sarah (my Irish buddy) and her girls, and ended up making mince pies for tea ("znuni"). Bea was inspired with Fiona's violin playing. A nice mellow day.

Snow snow snow

The children were super excited when they woke to see white rooftops and snow falling this morning. No sledging, but they played out in the school playground after afternoon Kindergarten. Bea's teacher flew back from Hawaii today, so she will be in a state of shock, and we say goodbye to the relief teacher as she takes them to the woods for the last day tomorrow for fire and sausages. Tonight we had the third evening of German/Swiss Christmas songs at the neighbours regular gathering—it's very cute—and we're starting to know the songs well.

Champagne and candles

While papa arrived in Sandakan (beautiful flight over the mountains of Sabah—I think this is Mount Kinabalu), we were out having a play date with Theodore (the little boy who's birthday party Bea's scatterbrain parents forgot to take him to) and his father in the tipping rain. The young lads wanted to go candle dipping, so we obliged. Bea was feeling super creative dipping two then twisting them together. Then off for piano practice, and on for some Bubbly at our friend's place (Gnome's impromptu birthday celebrations), which was a very nice way to lift a wet afternoon! The photo is of Zeki with Bea (Gnome's oldest, of her four children).

Island life

Apparently, this is a "stopover"! Papa has arrived in Kota Kinabalu and is in a room with a view by the ocean. Looks lovely. The real work, so he says, starts tomorrow.

Watching the wabbits

Just around the corner, in the garden of who I would say is Bea's favoured friend at the moment, they feed Vincent's rabbits before heading off to football. In footy, Bea was very chuffed that he set up a goal, and his team won!

Fondue

I received some pictures of Bea and Ili at the home of one of our neighbours. They went to play, and ended up staying for a Sunday night fondue supper.

To fly or not to fly

On a final practice run before papa heads off to Borneo tomorrow, they all tried to fly the plane that will be equipped with camera and GPS programming to fly over the rainforest. Unfortunately, it was way too windy!

Saturday night sparkles

The Christmas lights were lit in Zurich tonight. So after a takeaway dinner by the river (in our favourite spot) we toured the town. True to Zurich style, the decorations were very subtle and solely white—not a Santa Claus or Rudolf trying to get in a window anywhere. Shame! I must admit, I like a little more glitz and colour, but Bea and Ili were happy with the sparkles. While out window shopping, we couldn't help but notice this absolutely awful outfit for someone not much bigger than Ili — a fake leopardskin coat. Yuk! Nothing subtle about that ;-)