Ski Break!

In Switzerland, and most of Europe, children get a week off of school in February for ski break.  And to live up to its name, we decided to go skiing.  We returned to Les Gets, since it is so close to Geneva and made it easy for Randall to return to Geneva for work as needed throughout the week.  There were a couple of days where he skied with us in the morning, drove back to Geneva for meetings, and then was back in Les Gets in time for apres ski.  One of the perks of living so close to the alps!

We had a fantastic week of skiing and enjoyed some beautiful weather ...

... and one day of very dense fog.  It was so dense that you couldn't see more than a couple of feet ahead of you, and both Lexi and I suffered from vertigo.  Who knew that ski sickness was a real thing?

We ate some great meals in amazing slope side locations.  And I think Kenzie may be the only 5 year old who would order moules frites (mussels & french fries) over a pizza or cheeseburger :)

Kenzie & Lexi tackled their first European black slope with Randall (I chickened out when I saw the size of the moguls) ...

And the girls had fun skiing (& being silly with) with their classmate, Lamonie, one day ...

A fabulous week in Les Gets both on & off the slopes!

Will you be my Valentine

I am so thankful for the wonderful girlfriends that I have made in Geneva through the girls' school and to celebrate these new friendships I hosted a fun Valentine's Day brunch at our apartment.

Feeling lucky to have such a great group of fellow moms to share this expat adventure with!

A great start to ski season

The day after Christmas we packed up the car and drove about 60 km from Geneva to spend two weeks in Les Gets, in the French Alps.  When we first arrived the only snow to be found was of the man-made variety on a couple of runs, but it actually ended up being ideal for the girls.  Prior to this, they had only skied one time for 2 hours at Perfect North Slopes just outside of Cincinnati, and I'm pretty sure Kenzie cried for at least the first hour.  So we weren't quite sure what to expect.  We signed them up for 2 weeks of group lessons and the morning after we arrived they were off to their first class!  They were excited and a bit nervous! 

We were so happy when we picked them up from their first class and they both declared that they loved it!  They quickly graduated from the magic carpet lift & bunny slope to the chair lift & blue runs.  On day 2 of week 2, they got bumped up to the bronze level and by then end of the second week of lessons they were even skiing some reds with their instructor.  This past weekend when we went back to Les Gets they only wanted to ski the reds and were loving the deep powder and moguls.  After skiing for 3 weeks, it is official, they are better skiers than I am!  While we can all still ski together, I am happily bringing up the rear.  They have no fear, while I am much more cautious.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Les Gets, especially the second week once there had been a dumping of snow.  In addition to skiing, we went ice skating & sledding and enjoyed the many apres ski activities that Les Gets offers.  We also had lots of fun dinners with friends from Geneva & rang in the New Year with them as well.   The only downside of the two weeks in Les Gets is that Gigi slipped and fell and hurt her back on our third or fourth day there.  Up until then she had been enjoying taking the lift up to have a morning coffee or lunch at the slope side restaurant with us, but after her a fall she really had to take it easy.  Despite the injury I think she still enjoyed the time that she was able to spend with the girls.

One of the highlights from our time there was an epic snowball fight, where our crew of 7 and under kids took on a group of guys from the UK who were heading home from a bachelor party ... the girls thought it was the most fun thing ever!

Such a fun start to the ski season!  We are heading back to Les Gets tomorrow, as we have our chalet for one more weekend.  After that we will have to see whether we stick with Les Gets or we branch out and explore some other resorts for the balance of the season.

A very merry Swiss Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas season in Geneva, with our girls.  Thankfully Elfie, St. Nikolas, and Santa all found us in Switzerland!

On December 6th, the girls woke up to boots full of goodies from St. Nikolas and later that day we even spotted him at the Christmas market at La Reserve.

We visited our fair share of Christmas Markets during the month of December.  One of our favorites was in Montreux, with a stunning location right on Lake Geneva.

On December 16th the girls each had a Christmas performance at school.  Lexi sang her heart out & Kenzie had a starring role as Joseph (yes, Joseph) in her class skit.  Too cute!

Later that afternoon, we got together with friends for an afternoon of bowling & a Secret Santa gift exchange.  After bowling we even got the chance for a photo opp with Santa himself.

The following day, our very first visitor from the US arrived in Geneva!  The girls were beyond excited to see Gigi!  We gave her a day to recover from jet lag, and the following afternoon after picking the girls up from school we took her to Santa's house in Andilly, France.  It was such a cute place to visit.  In addition to seeing the elves workshop, we also got to see where they eat, sleep & play.  The girls got to write letters to Santa, and even sat in his sleigh which was on the runway where the reindeer take off.

The next morning we were off to Zurich, for a weekend of Christmas cheer!  We spent Saturday exploring Old Town and visiting the Christmas Markets.  The vin chaud was flowing and we sampled quite a few local Christmas treats.

On Sunday morning we found yet another Christmas Market right on the lake, and the girls were thrilled that it had an ice skating rink.  The Santa trolley on Bahnhofstrasse was really cute, but the girls weren't too keen on the fact that it was for children only (no adult accompaniment allowed), so we just watched from the sidelines (which I was also fine with).

On the way home from Zurich we stopped to tour the Cailler Chocolate factory.  It was a very cool and informative tour and the "all you can eat" chocolate tasting at the end was a big hit with everyone!

On Christmas Eve morning the girls decorated cookies for Santa.  It was a Christmas miracle that my cutout Christmas cookies actually turned out ok!





Later that day we took a trip to Annecy, for one last Christmas Market.  It was a gorgeous and unseasonably warm day!  Annecy is one of our favorite day trip locations and it was especially pretty all dressed up for Christmas.

When we got home, we got ready for the Christmas Eve service at the St. Pierre Cathedral in old town.  It was a beautiful service & then we came home and ate a delicious dinner before reading "The Night Before Christmas" and tucking the girls into bed.

Christmas morning was a big success.  Santa delivered on all of the girls' big wishes & they loved their guitars and sewing machines!

It was a wonderful day spent at home, playing with new toys, going for a walk by the lake in the sunshine & then making pasta for an Italian Christmas feast.

Such a blessed Christmas season in Geneva!