Ski Trip to Avoriaz

We just finished a fabulous trip to the ski resort of Avoriaz, France.  Avoriaz is a quaint resort in the Portes du Soleil ski area of the French/Swiss Alps.  It is car free, so people either walk around the town or hitch rides in horse-drawn sleighs (complete with sleigh bells)!  We bought a little sled and just pulled Tyler and Natasha around in it.  We stayed in a beautiful new ski-in/ski-out apartment complex complete with a spa, pool and games center.  The three older kids went to ski school for a couple hours in the morning, so that Rob and I could do some real skiing ourselves.  Natasha stayed with a babysitter every morning.  Doesn't this sound nice?  It was!  I was afraid that I would not be able to ski well because I'm 6 months pregnant but I look like I'm ready to give birth!  The skiing was just fine.  It was the bending over to help the kids that hurt me.  Once I sat down to put on Tyler's skis and I could not get up again!  It took lots of pulling from Rob to finally get me up again. One highlight for me was getting to ski from France into Switzerland.  How cool is that?

Avoriaz also puts on an amazing Christmas "spectacle" every year -- a Santa Claus, giant snowmen, and one of the best fireworks shows I've seen!

The view from our apartment window.

 Anna Claire posing with the view.

 Tyler too!

Mariah has to do it too!

 One nice part of the trip was doing Christmas without having to worry about the presents. (We opened most of the presents before we left.)  That meant that we could focus on the true meaning of Christmas and really emphasize Christ's gift to us.  Of course, we did our traditional Christmas play on Christmas Eve. . .followed by a nice raclette meal.

Tyler was our wiseman.

 Natasha wanted to be a wiseman too.

 As you can see we had plenty of wisemen!  That meant that Mommy was a shepherd and Mary (pregnant, of course) and Daddy was basically everything else!

Ski time!

"Come on Mom.  Just let me ski!"

"Woo Hoo!   Let's go fast!!!"

 Natasha cherishing her Daddy time!

Natasha got tired of watching us leave to ski every morning.  She would quickly put on her warm socks and boots, hoping we would take her.  It was hard to leave her. But she did have lots of fun sledding!  And, of course, she loved our après-ski swim parties.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We are doing presents early this year because we skiing in France on Christmas day.  It was a hassle getting all the shopping done early, but also liberating to know that I don't have to deal with the Christmas rush!  I am also thrilled that Christmas day this year will not be centered around presents.

Merry Christmas everybody!

"Yeah!  We are excited to uncover all the presents!" 

 "I love all this stuff! Can we do this everyday?"

Oh, to experience Christmas in the eyes of a 2-year-old.

Our dancing Anna

Anna is now in her 3rd year of ballet.  She really enjoys it and likes the discipline it entails.  This year, however, there are only 3 girls in the class.  The small number has actually been positive because the teacher can focus more on each of the girls.  Here are some photos from a recent "open door" session.

Istanbul

We just returned from an incredible trip to Istanbul, Turkey.  I had been once before on a daytrip 15 years ago, and Rob had never been so we were anxious to head out for a long weekend.  (Rob was speaking at a conference there during the week.)  The city truly is the crossroads between East and West.  The influence of Islam is everyone -- calls to prayer from minarets interrupt the bustling city-dwellers.  But the influence of old Christianity is also unmistakable.  The Hagia Sophia is a fascinating building, steeped in Christian and Islamic symbolism.  Just across from it, the Blue Mosque is another interesting building.  Because it is a working mosque, I had to cover my head, which is something I haven't done for awhile.  I had a Muslim friend in Nyon who made the conscious choice to become more religious and started covering her head.  She told me that hair was too beautiful and not modest to show to everyone.  It is interesting to think of hair as being an aspect of modesty.  What a different world ours would be if we all thought that way. 

Topkapi palace was also quite interesting to see -- especially the harem.  It is horrific to imagine that the Ottomans kept hundreds of concubines (many of them captured Christian women) for their pleasure and posterity.

We took some beautiful photos while in Istanbul, but they are all on Rob's phone so I will have to upload later.

Tyler was not happy with the Turkish hat we brought him, until we convinced him that it was a soldier's hat and let him wear it with his sword.  My parents brought home the exact same hat 30 years ago when they visited Turkey!  Not much has changed!

Natasha loves her Turkish princess slippers.

It's Snowing!

Yay! The snow is here.  We hope it stays through December and our ski vacation.

Building snow forts and snowmen.

Our house in the snow.  I love having a real house with a real driveway.  But I don't like shoveling!

Holiday Spirit!

It's that time of year again for all the holiday traditions that I mostly do for my kids.  This year, I tried to simplify by getting them done early!

Pulling out the good ole' Ikea Christmas tree.  I really dislike this tree.  We bought it because it was cheap and we thought we would only be in Switzerland one Christmas.  We're still using it -- 6 Christmases later.

Natasha really got into the tree trimming!

The annual Gingerbread house ooey-gooey mess.  This year, it became a gummy bear house.

Note the chocolate on Natasha's face.  I think she ate more than she decorated. 

Visiting Santa Claus.  My kids are all doubters and I don't particularly promote it.  "Mom, why do all Santa Clauses have such fake beards?"

Mariah just thinks it's fun to chat.

 "Hmmm.  What do I want?  A dinosaur!"

The annual neighborhood Christmas cookie decorating party.

Autumn leaves

Now that we have a big yard with two huge trees, we have lots of leaves to rake.  The kids are happy to do it -- as long as they can jump in it afterwards.  Plus, Rob has a new Saturday chore system which allows them to earn money for college.  It's motivating for Anna, but not the others quite yet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in the U.S.  No worry about presents, just lots of good food and plenty of thankfulness.  Here in Switzerland, Thanksgiving is rather disappointing.   We often get together with other families, but there is no holiday, so we have to rush and do it after work and before it gets too late for the kids, who have school the next morning.  This year we just did our own little dinner.  I miraculously found a frozen turkey the day before, so I had to rush to unthaw it and brine it before the big day.  Kari made homemade rolls.  I never make these and they were so yummy.  This is the first time I've actually made the turkey myself and it turned out marvelously tender with the brining.  I'm really good at the dessert side because that is my favorite part.  Because our gathering was so small, however, I skipped all the other pies and made my standard pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust.  It was a lot of work for a small family meal.  But, hey, Thanksgiving only comes once a year.

Posing with all our chefs.

Natasha is ready to eat!!!

Ya! Ya!

Natasha is not one to sit quietly at the dinner table.  Almost every night without fail, she gets up from her seat, climbs onto the bench with the other kids, stands behind them and hugs them while rocking and singing "Ya, ya, ya, ya".  I really thinks she means "La, la, la, la" but she can't pronounce her L's yet.  I should reprimand her for leaving her place, but it's so adorable.

Start spreading the news. . .

Rob and I just returned from a refreshing trip to New York City.  Rob has a conference there each November and I have joined him for the past couple years.  I love returning to the Big Apple.  I have so many fond memories of the place, especially because it is where Rob and I met and dated.  Plus, there is a certain reviving energy I feel every time I visit.  We get to see shows, go to museums and meet up with old friends.  Rob will never live there because he doesn't like the crowds, but I love the crowds, the excitement, the anonymity (and perhaps the independence from my overwhelming job of motherhood) that I feel when I'm there.  Someday we will have to take our children.

The view out the window of our fancy-schmanzy midtown hotel.

I finally was able to see the September 11 Memorial.  It is quite beautifully done. 

However, returning there still gives me chills.

I convinced my parents to meet us there.  My dad had business in New York anyhow.  It was so much fun to see them and CK, Carl and their darling baby Athelia Claire.  What a treat!

Here I am in front of 1 Liberty Plaza, my old office building. 

I think it's getting some sort of a facelift.

Rob is not very excited to have his picture taken in Central Park.

I went for a run in Central Park and had to take photos of the autumn leaves.  Switzerland is beautifully green, but the fall leaves are not as nice as the East Coast.

Rob in front of his old apartment building -- where he lived when we were dating.

And Baby Number 5 will be. . .

We wanted to do something fun to inform our children of the sex of our upcoming new baby.  I made cupcakes and wrote letters on each of the cupcakes.  I then scrambled them and the kids had to unscramble them to find out the sex.  Here is the final result:

 You would think that the kids would have figured it out immediately by the color of the cupcakes.  But blue is Anna's favorite color so it's not very gender-typed in our house.

Notice the look of surprise and excitement on everyone's faces -- except Natasha, who doesn't know what to think.  Tyler somehow thinks that the new baby will replace Natasha in the family (because "she always hits me").  Sorry bud, she's staying with us for life!

Halloween Party!

Our ward does a Halloween Party each year.  Because there are not usually many Halloween activities in Switzerland, the kids look forward to this party for months and invite all of their friends.  This year is the first year in awhile that I didn't prepare ahead and order costumes from the U.S.  It turned out just fine.  Anna wanted to be a bat, so I just sewed wings onto a black shirt, made a mask and, voilà!  She was a bat.  Mariah wanted to be a witch, and witch costumes are easy to find here.  With Tyler, we just threw together a pirate costume from old clothes and Natasha wore Anna's old bumblebee outfit.  Everyone seemed happy.  

Halloween night itself was extremely exciting!  Our new house is on a street full of expat Americans and Brits.  And, many of the Swiss on our street spent some time living in America.  As such, it is known as the "Halloween" street.  Americans come from all over just to trick or treat on our street.  Those who want to participate just put pumkins outside their door.  Some houses even did the whole scary haunted house decorations.  I couldn't believe it.  I almost felt like I was back in the U.S.!  Although I bought a lot of candy to give out, I still ran out by 7:30!

Tyler the fearsome pirate, exhausted by all his knife fights and ship stealing.

Natasha the Bumblebee who wouldn't keep her antennas on even for a minute.

Mariah, the evil witch (and our little drama queen).

Anna, the giant bat.

Tyler, the pirate who did not want to walk the plank.

Again, Mariah, the scary witch.

Mariah loves the limelight!