Fall Clean-Up

Weather's finally starting to turn and the snowline's lower - many have already been snowboarding on Zermatt, where you can do winter sports all year.

As we head into finals, time for a blog clean-up!

I had a birthday. Magnificent cake, a double-layered, pound cake tiramisu TO DIE FOR. Birthdays are celebrated during lunch, but Carolyn made a special effort, which everyone appreciated.

Something about massive sheet cakes.

Erice makes special handmade cards, which the students signed. My actual day was 11-11-11, but was overshadowed by Michael's Tintin extravaganza, so we made up for it.

We sometimes joke that Michael will grow-up to be an event planner; he so relishes celebrations and festivities.

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On the actual day, we went out for a rare steak dinner at Les Trois Rois (The Three Kings) and enjoyed some tasty beef; Michael surprised us all by ordering horse!
The FLON - the old, bohemian warehouse district - has been turned into a retail transportation hub, with a wintertime patinoire (ice-skating rink).

Most larger towns have rinks, so we thought it'd make a great student venture.

The boys go on regularly skating trips with their school,

and Jack got the hang of it eventually.

This young Swiss man came out of nowhere and played with the boys.

Michael, surprisingly to us, fell lots of times, but never tired of it...

and the students formed a line

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France and Germany have Christmas markets - Marche de Noel - with Montreux's the best in this region.

Rides,

such as this open carriage ferris wheel spins as it revolves! As in Japan, lawsuits don't pay well and it's not a civil right to be safe, so public spaces are full of real adventure.

Carolyn headed up Christmas cookie sessions to great success!

This year, we bought Betty Bossi's (Martha Stewart of CH) cookie dough,

which came with a simple diagram for a Gingerbread House!

The hazelnut dough (dark brown) was delicious.

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There was a Secret Santa gift exchange, with the boys in the middle of everything.

which the boys absolutely loved.

Mugs seemed to be the prevailing gift.

Alex, whose aunt played with Miles Davis, is a sax player herself, & gave Jack a ride afterwards. The boys are fascinated by her leopard robe.

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Dec 6th was St Nicholas Day, celebrated in German & French speaking countries, especially, by placing a Nick-shaped loaf with chocolates in an old shoe at bedside. The old town had a St Nick riding on a donkey. The above example is a particularly stunning example, with the traditional ceramic pipe.

Found these frozen clementines filled with tangerine sherbert - first course at Mrs. Schaeffer's Christmas dinner.

The Army were out at the Vevey market.

Really enjoy these Spanish KAKI - for one thing, they're huge.

Michael drew cards for everyone, placing a gift and card at each plate one breakfast.

This string of nuts, orange, cinnamon was beautiful, though sooon lost much of its scent.

Our Charlie Brown tree.

Happy Advent! It's in full-swing here.