Morning Parade

This morning around 6:30am we were awakened to a loud banging going on outside. Went we looked outside, there was a parade of kids walking up our street banging pots and pans. Apparently, it's a Swiss tradition that on the last day of school before Christmas vacation, the school kids parade through their neighborhood banging pots and pans to wake everyone up. Cute little tradition. Their mission was accomplished. We were definitely all awake after they came by!

Silvester Lauf 2009

Today we all ran the Zurich SilvesterLauf. It was a fun run through the city of Zurich. It was seriously cold and snowy but we were up for the challenge! My mom and aunt were in town and they came with us to cheer us on. Aidan was excited because this was his first solo race. The last one he ran with Jason. This time he ran the 1.4K just with a friend. Lainey was so upset last time that she couldn't run, that we signed her up for muki/vaki (mother/child-father/child) race. I knew myself well enough to just run with her, no longer race for me this time! Jason, though, was tough enough to brave the cold and run a 8.6K! Here is Team Barnett, getting our numbers and gearing up for our races! Aidan's was first at 12:20, Lainey and I ran at 1:30, and Jason was at 3:45. Aidan was so happy to run with his friend William.

Here they are ready to start!

Coming in to the finish! They finished in just over 8 minutes. Not bad, guys!

We had a hard time staying warm for the hour between Aidan's race and mine and Lainey's. By the time it started, she wasn't too keen on doing it. She was complaining of being cold and having a sore foot. I made her at least start though. At the start line, she got excited again and began the race strong. About a 1/4 of the way through though, she started crying and wanted to be carried. I figured that was it for her. But no! She rallied! After taking about 2 steps with her in my arms, she changed her mind and said, "put me down, I'm going to run it all, Mommy!". I was SO proud of her! Even with a foot that kind of hurt her, she walked/ran the rest of the course! People along the way were cheering her on and she ate that praise up! Aidan and Jason figured we wouldn't finish, but Lainey didn't give up. She told me she was worried Santa might be watching and so she should do her best. Plus, I kept reminding her of the medal she'd get at the end of the race. She and I finished (finally) in 17 minutes.

Here we are approaching the finish line!

SO proud of her medal!

Jason set off on his 8.6K at 3:45. We didn't watch him start (we were trying to stay warm), but we caught up with him for the last 10 minutes of his race. He did a great job despite below freezing temps and snow!

Here's Jason heading toward the finish line!

Aside from the cold, we had a great day in the city. PatTone cheered us on and I took them to their first Christmas Markt in the Zurich train station while Jason started his race. The kids are so proud of their accomplishments. We are happy to see them getting a feel for competition and physical lifestyle. Hopefully, if we don't learn anything else from our time in Europe, we'll have learned to live a healthier lifestyle.

Team Barnett at the end of race day!

Kerzenziehen

One of the local Swiss Christmas traditions is "kerzenziehen" or candle dipping. Aidan went to the Catholic Church in our town with his first grade class last week. He had such a good time and made such a cool one that we decided to go again as a family the day PatTone arrived! Candle dipping isn't a quick project! We had to dip 3 times, then go outside, dip the candle in cold water, dry it off, then go back to dipping. Repeat the process about 30 times! It took us about an hour to make our candles, but it was fun!

Apparently, all the ICS kids had fun on the field trip because we ran into 4 school friends there! Here's Lainey and Tone with Nicholas and William from school

There were lots of different color wax to choose from. Lainey liked making a rainbow candle.

My work in progress

When we were done we could decorate our candle with carvings or adding bits and pieces. Aidan's from school turned out great (see first pic) but the rest of ours, that we tried to do ourselves, didn't turn out great. We should have left that part to the experts!

Lainey's Concert

This morning was Lainey's EY1 Christmas Concert. The kids had been learning songs since Nov. 1 (right after the Halloween show was over!). Lainey was SOOO excited for this day. She was "going to wear a fancy dress and my daddy is even going to come!" (direct quote from Lainey). She was at her prettiest best and ready to leave for school right on time. The show started at 10:30 and the kids sang 6 songs and did dances and hand movements. It was really sweet and very festive thanks to all the crafts the kids made to decorate their classroom!

Santa even made a special appearance at school! He brought Delainey a new Barbie! Daddy got the honor of helping her open it.

It was a great morning and Lainey loved having her daddy come to school with her!

I Got Fan Mail!

I've been writing a column called "Mum's Turn" for a English language parenting magazine here in Switzerland since May. It's basically just ramblings and a few edited versions of my blog postings, but it makes me happy to see my name and words in print.

This week, I got fan mail!!! Someone wrote a letter into the magazine saying they liked my article and really "connected" with it! How cool is that! You can check out the magazine (and leave me more fan mail) at http://www.thestork.ch/. (None of my articles have made it to the website, though. They only post the features, not the columns.)

OK, I'm done tooting my own horn.

Samiclaus is Coming to Town

Samiclaus talking to Lainey, Schmutzli is in the brown robe in the background

Making Lebkuchen (spice cakes) at the mall on Dec. 6th

Aidan's finished product with a "Grusse von Samiclaus" cookie on it (Greetings from Samiclaus)

Last weekend was a big weekend in German holiday culture. Samiclaus and Schmutzli come on December 6th. Samiclaus is much like Santa, only instead of toys he brings chocolate, nuts, and clementines. Schmutzli is Sami's helper. They will ask kids if they have been good, and if they have they get treats and if not Schmutzli hits them with his stick and tosses them in his sack and carries them away. Seriously.

Okay, well not so seriously now but that's what Schmutzli used to do back in the good ol' days before beating and kidnapping children was frowned upon.

Nowadays, kids leave out their shoes at night for Samiclaus to fill. This brings back memories for me, as putting shoes out is also a French tradition, and how Jason and I met during French class my Sophomore year. I had to fill his shoe :0). Aw, and look at us now! But I digress, so the kids were happy to put out their shoes at home and at school. They must have been good this year because they got loads of chocolate, peanuts, and mandarins!

At school, in his German class, Aidan has been learning a lot about Samiclaus and Schmutzli. This year, his teacher is German, so according to him, she got LOTS of stuff in her shoe. He's learned a song in German about Samiclaus too. I love that he's getting some language at school.

Speaking of songs, today is Lainey's Christmas Concert in her class. Jason took the morning off for the festivities! Lainey couldn't be more excited to sing about "the little old Jesus asleep in the hay". I love it!!

Christmas Markets

Europe is famous for it's Christmas Markets. They are lovely "villages" of huts set up selling all sorts of Christmas decorations, cookies, and gifts. We took Missy and the gang to my favorite city-Colmar, France- to see their market. Colmar, on any day, is an unbelievably cute town. It looks just like Belle's village in Beauty and the Beast. You just expect to see Gaston coming out of one of the pubs there! But, Colmar at Christmas was absolutely magical. You couldn't help but be in the Christmas spirit there!

Can you believe this is a real place-it looks like a movie set!