Before Christmas...

We always try not to schedule too much for December and it always ends up feeling as crazy as ever.

This year was no exception and we were happy to have Colin with us for all of it.

We started by taking the kids to an evening Christmas concert at VictoriaHall in Geneva. This was a great experiment to see if Kelsey (only 3) and Alek would be able to sit through an hour of hearing an orchestra play songs from the Nutcracker- by Tchykovsky. Thanks to the rococo over the top glittering hall and the fact that we could see the harp and timpani from the first balcony, the kids were very entertained and we had a great evening. Even Alek said it was the best night ever.

Next was a trip to the Christmas markets-

The first one we visited was close to home at the castle of Chillon where we saw a medieval fair. We saw foot powered pottery wheels and wood lathes. We ate lentil soup in the 1000 year old dinning hall, helped make rope and coins and watched sword fighting techniques. It was a cold day but we still had fun.

Next we planned a quick weekend trip up to Germany to see our friends in Freiburg - a 3 hour car journey.

The city was so fun and it felt like we were stepping into fairytale book. The houses looked like gingerbread creations and the center of town has a wonderful old clock tower with a tunnel for the tram (city bus) underneath. The whole town is decorated with red stars hanging from the buildings and the markets were full of people.

Almost everyone walks or rides bikes and it was fun to see people cart their Christmas trees home over their shoulders or sitting on the baby carriage - with baby inside.

One of our highlights there was celebrating Brooklyn's 12th birthday! I had baked the cake beforehand and brought it up in the car with us. But I forgot candles and luckily our friends helped us find that oh so important accessory to the cake.

We all had a fabulous time and the kids loved going to Ute and Dirk's house.

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With all the events before Christmas we tried to keep Christmas day nice and quiet. And because it was on Sunday we had a low key day playing with presents and eating a farm hen for dinner.

the Matterhorn

When we let the kids vote on what to do on an unscheduled saturday, they often want to go the the mountains. We thought it was about time we go and see the tallest peak in Switzerland- the Matterhorn.The best view is from the little ridge called Gornergrat.

The tricky part is getting there. First you have to park your car in Tasch and take a train to Zermatt (15min). Then you change train stations and go on another train (30min) up to Gornergrat at 3089 meters or 10,000 ft. From there the views are spectacular and you can see more that 20 peaks that are taller than 4000 meters or 13,000 feet.

The kids loved seeing and playing in the snow. It brought back many fond memories of Calgary and sledding.

We did see one crazy mountain biker take his bike up on the train and then ride his bike down (almost 5000 ft) on the semi groomed trails to Zermatt.