Saas Fee

Debby & Udo (aka Grammy and Papa) along with Isaac & girlfriend, Jessica, spent one day of Christmas with us before we went to Saas Fee. 

As always, a wealth of books -1948 hardcover of Five Little Peppers & How They Grew, The Castle in the Attic, The Upstairs Room, and various WWII stories, complementing the Piet Prins' Scout series we've grown to love about the Dutch Resistance. There's a wealth of excellent children's literature we tend to overlook in our zeal to ingrain the Lewis/Tolkien canon (the latter's works never intended for children) with their Christian symbolism. Whatever happened to just plain old great books?  

On that theme, I am reminded that something like 40-50% of the great preacher, Charles Spurgeon's books - when taking inventory of his library - had no theological theme.

Udo trying out MUJI's knit gloves that can be used on touchscreen devices!

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Lausanne got 2 days accumulation of snow (about the limit) before we drove 2 hours to Saas Fee, a family ski resort surrounded by 13 peaks and a glacier with year-long winter sports; Zermatt (Matterhorn) the glitzy next door neighbor.

 

 Everyone signed-up for lessons.

Michael ended up learning to parallel, placing 2nd in the slalom competition in his age bracket.

Jack graduated from saucer to skis, going up to the top of the blue runs. Carolyn found her stride in the intermediate range, and went all the way up to the glacier, where the highest revolving restaurant in CH sits.

 
At night. 

I have been suffering a rotator cuff/frozen shoulder problem, so was in apres-ski mode all day long, but for a long walk downhill one glorious morning.

 

The slate tiled chalets are characteristic of the region closer to Italy. On Wed night, the ski instructors put on a fireworks show, skiing down the peak by torchlight. 

 

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We returned to Lausanne to open a few gifts; the standout being Jack's cuboro - an absolutely ingenious Swiss marble run.

Comprised of identically sized cubes but with different patterns, tunnel levels, and angles, making endless configurations. BRINGING BACK WITH US. The precision (marble won't pick-up speed unless all blocks are tightly fitted), the tunnel burrowing, & creativity reflect the Swiss traits of overcoming geographic obstacles. Jack took to it, immediately coming up with surprising variations.

Michael, our farmer boy, scored with this indoor gardening set, complete with recipes, and various potato-themed science experiments.