Joyeux Noël

Our first Christmas in Switzerland is a mixture of the familiar and the new. We kept many of the family traditions, such as Dad being first up to check if Santa Clause paid a visit, setting holiday mood music, starting coffee, fire up the camera, and finally giving word to three anxious children that it is okay to come upstairs (in America, our bedrooms are upstairs, so you go downstairs to see what Santa brought). Pause at the top of the stairs for the annual photo, then let the ripping begin -- Legos everywhere. We miss having family here for this holiday especially. But we had a wonderful Christmas eve dinner at "chez Grant" with our Swiss family, the Gibsons, including Grant's mom Pat.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is not celebrated in Switzerland typically, however we got together with our neighbors and threw a tradional Halloween party for the kids. Games included mummy, donut eating contests, apple bobbing, balloon stomping, and of course, the kids all went "trick or treat" around the building. It was great fun and a reminder of home for the Americans and a maybe an introduction to a new tradition for the local children.