This week (finally some pictuers!!)

It snowed all of last week. We are not used to having so much snow down here. Of course we were the only ones on the street with a shovel.

The dog thought it was great because he could lie in his bed all day.

Monday was St. Nicolas day. The children sang songs in front of the school while they waited for St. Nicolas to arrive in a carriage pulled by some of the village horses to give them a "bonhomme de pâte"

It rained the whole time. By the time St. Nicolas arrived, we were cold and soaked.

We signed up to do an Avent window this year. Here is Alicia helping to tape the paper on.

We served Christmas tea, hot wine, Christmas cookies, pizza and ramequins.

We were getting a little worried at first because on the instructions we received it said as of 6pm. Since it was cold and raining out again we weren't sure anyone was going to show. However after a long 30 minutes of silence, people started to show at about 6:30pm and we had about 25-30 people come all together.

After raining all week. This is what is looks like outside now! It's spring again.

We had our company Christmas party on Friday. The theme was supposed to be Holywood movies. Most places were out of group costumes, so we dressed up as witches and a vanpire (kind of more like holloween costumes though).

Here is a little video from St. Nicolas day at the school. You can't see much, but you can hear the children singing.

Halloween

In Switzerland they like everything to be planned down to the minute. In our village since they don't want the kids to be too tired for school the next day, they change the date of Halloween to be the closest Friday to Halloween. They even set a limited time slot that the kids are allowed to go trick or treating so that everyone is not bothered too much. This is the letter everyone in the village received.
Brandon and Alicia got very excited about going out and made their own costumes. Alicia wanted to be a scary ghost. Brandon just wanted to be scary. They both went out trick or treating with a group of their friends.

Starting Halloween at 6 pm meant that we had to carve my pumpkin the night before. On Friday at noon, I had to rush home to explain to a neighbour how to carve a pumpkin (she really liked my pumpkin last year).

My pumpkin was a big hit in the village. Two mother's asked me if I could give them pumkin making classes next year. Having the pumpkin carving knives that Grandma sent over made carving much easier than using the electric saw like I did last year.

Holland

I went to Holland this week for a management training course. To my surprise we stayed in an old monastary. It was recently bought over and is now used as a school for young people wanting to work in the hotel business. I'd have to say that the average age of the people working there must have been about 20!

The hotel was in the town of Amersfoort.

We visited one of the old dams and raised it slightly the way they used to do it in the old days by running on giant wheels (almost felt like I was a mouse running around in a wheel)

Holland would not be Holland without bicycles.

As one of the team building event was to sail this 14 meter sail boat in Lelystad.

Boy was it cold, windy and rainy. Notice the small eyes, I think I partied a little too much the night before.

We distributed our roles on the boat (none of us had even sailed a boat before). Mine was the skipper. Then we had mini regadas. It was loads of fun.

Alsace

We went to Alsace in France with our neighbour's a couple of weeks ago. This is one of the many castles in the area. It was on a mountain and had a very impressive view.
Alicia and Lea touring the castle.

One of the little villages we visited. You have to hope you don't have any problems with your neighbours when the houses are so close!

The weather was great! We took long walk through the wine vineyards.

Picked wallnuts from the trees.

Even gathered quite a few.

Look at all those grape vines. Have to say, the wine was excellent.

Alicia playing with Loris at the restaurant.

While we were there Brandon had to be hospitalized for asthma attack.

Feeling a little better.

Transfer in an ambulance from one to the children's hospital. That was both Brandon and my first time in an ambulance. We got to do it again when coming home from Alsace because the hospital insisted we be accompagnied back to Switzerland in case Brandon had another attack (he didn't).

pictures from the past couple of weeks

The past couple of weekends have still been really nice. There always seems to be lots of kids in the pool.
I think we have the only pool in the village that still has 28 degrees thanks to the cover. Since there have been quite a few cold nights, I have heard that others only have about 22.

There have been some really clear days where the Alps are really easy to see. Here is the sun setting on the Alps. Hervé always makes fun of me when I take a picture of the Alps. But I never get tired of seeing them.

This week Alicia thought her hair was getting in her eyes and decided to cut her bangs by herself. Notice how she hardly has any left.

She helped clean the floors with Hervé on Monday.

This weekend my work had a family BBQ. There were lots of activities for the kids. Alicia painted pictures and decorated a vase.

Brandon found dressing up for Sumo fighting a lot of fun.

The fights never lasted more than a couple of seconds.

Once they were down, they couldn't get up by themselves again.

Alicia also enjoyed jumping in the blow-up castle.

And made friends with another little girl.

Brandon learning to sail

Brandon took sailing lessons this week. He had to learn to put his boat together by himself...



Roll it over to the water to put it in...




Put the rutter on...

and off he went

The boats were followed by a sail boat and two motor boats.

Just enough wind to be able to get out but not too much to have to worry about tipping over.

Brevet Cavalier

I just received some pictures from the horse exam I passed in June. This is the group I went riding with every Thursday night (my friends are all under 22 years old, made me feel old at times). At the beginning of the exam we had to all line up while the examiner checked if we had tacked up correctly and that everything was clean (I spent the whole afternoon the day before cleaning the horse and the tack).

warming up

The examiner would tell up to do certain exercices which we did one by one or all together in a group to show we could handle the horse in different situations.

Loaping around the arena.

I even had to learn how to do small jumps.

Samba and Billy after the exam. It wasn't a long exam, but boy was it hot in there!