Merry Swissmas

Christmas in Switzerland has been a success. The kids are enjoying ski school in the mornings.  Dad arrived without a hitch on Tuesday.  It snowed on Christmas and the next day.

We spent Christmas  Eve at a lovely local fondue restaurant though unfortunately I felt sick from dehydration and probably altitude sickness and couldn't enjoy that part much.  The next morning Santa was a hit and the kids, Jesse & I hit the slopes.  I took a three hour lesson and felt great.  A bit too confidant to leave the bunny slope and enter a blue piste and my swift wipeout put an end to my first ski day.  

That afternoon we drove to the Bains de Saillon, an outdoor thermal spa where all of us relaxed and enjoyed the extensive pools.  It was dark, cold in the air and warm in the pools.  Great Christmas evening.   

Thursday was a perfect post-Christmas day.  After skiing we rested at home and went down to play in the snowy playground until dinner where all the kids behaved and adults enjoyed food and drinks.  Jesse & I tried out the hot tub and went to bed all warm and cozy.
I talked myself into trying again and got back out on skis Thursday & Friday mornings.  This time I stayed on the graduate bunny hill and regained my confidence.  I feel so proud to have tried skiing at 35.  I want to someday be able to go with the kids. 

Getting to Switzerland

We drove to Haute-Nendaz, Seitzerland for Christmas.  It took 10 hours because we remembered we forgot our passports 30 minutes into the drive and had to backtrack.  The drive itself was luckily uneventful.  Luxembourg looks like Belgium, the Alsace wine country of eastern France is lovely and that box is checked, and Switzerland stops you to pay a 40 CHF tax when you enter the country.  

I've never had my own car in Switzerland and always relied on the excellent trains before.  Turns out the highways are excellent too.  They have more tunnels then I've ever seen, so we didn't have to wind through the hills until we came between Sion and Nendaz.  Then wind we did, climbing up the mountain to Chalet Henri, our rental home for the week.

We spent our first full day getting organized, renting the kids' equipment and playing at the playground in the snow.  The whole time I just kept looking at the mountains.  They are exactly as beautiful as I remembered them.  Totally worth the trip by themselves.  We took Cole and Lauren ice skating and then bungee trampolining before dinner and early to bed for their first day of ski school on Monday!

London

Last weekend Jesse, my mom & I took the kids to London.  Cities in the winter with small children, not exactly recommended, but we thought we'd try anyway.  It had its moments of why in the world did we attempt to do this, but fortunately, it also its moments of beautiful, fun awesomeness.
Friday after we checked in to our lovely hotel - St. Ermin's Autograph on Caxton Street in Westminster - we walked through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace and over to Hyde Park.  It got a little cold and windy so we gave up on visiting Diana's Playground, but it's on the list for a warmer weather trip.  That evening we attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey for a few minutes at least until Caroline couldn't take sitting any longer.  I just kept thinking a very pregnant Victoria Beckham sat in the same seats to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding.
Saturday morning we rode the Underground to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  It was a beautiful, crisp, clear day and quite an impressive stop.  Then we headed to do our tour of the London Eye - so worth it!  Lunch on the South Bank and back to the hotel over Westminster Bridge.  So many people!  London at Christmastime is crowded!  I know its a huge city and all, but for some reason I expected all of these people to be dispersed.  They may well have been, but then after sunset, they all converged on Oxford/Regent Street to see the lights, shops and general sardine walking ambiance.  We visited Hamleys, an amazing toy store with toys we never knew existed (pictures were taken for future reference), we saw the 12 Days of Christmas light displays spanning the wide avenues, and after we rode a double decker bus back to the hotel through the theater district, we had room service so we could not see other people for a few minutes.
By the grace of my mother watching all the kids for the evening, Jesse & I headed out for drinks at the cozy Blue Boar, walking in the rain along the Thames and up through Trafalgar Square to Burberry on Regent Street.  Quite a flagship store.  We ended up grabbing more drinks at a small pub off Regent and then back to the hotel on the top of another double decker bus, nearly alone in the rain.
Sunday we tried to push it and walked all the way through Kensington to the National Science Museum.  It wasn't that great for toddlers, the kids were over it and except for Starbucks and the lovely homes and gardens we passed, probably not worth our trip.  So we called it a weekend, got the car and headed back home to Brussels.

Buckingham Palace - Queen was home

Hey kids - Big Ben and Parliament!

View from Westminster Bridge

Christmas decor at St. Ermin's

Tower of London and Tower Bridge

On the London Eye

Date night!

December in Brussels

Brussels isn't known for its good winter weather, but we've lucked out quite a bit.  December thus far has been crisp and cold, perfect for Christmas Markets and holiday decorations.  We made it down to the Grand Place twice, saw the endless stands selling vin chaud, the sparkling Christmas tree and the musical light show.  It's quite crowded so that's it for us downtown this year, but even chez nous it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Decorating the practice tree

Grand Place with musical light show

Disneyland Paris

We took the kids to Disneyland Paris to celebrate Thanksgiving 2013.  We didn't tell them until the night before and we were a little surprised that they were happy, but not overly excited about the prospect.  Cole seemed to think it wasn't as good as Disney World - he was probably right, but come on, he's 5!
It was a relatively short drive to the park from Brussels.  We checked into our hotel Wednesday afternoon and headed over to Disneyland.  It was magically decorated for Christmas.  I think this was the biggest attraction.  Main Street USA is enchanting with twinkling lights, Christmas balls, shops and garland.  When they made it snow, Jesse & I almost believed it, it was so real.  The castle is beautiful and the park was pretty empty so we could get a good view of everything, including the best part of the trip, the parades.  The dancers, the floats, the kids watching with twinkling eyes - this is why adults come to Disney.  The food, the service, the accommodations, the climate - these should not be mentioned above necessity.  We'll try to go back again before we leave the continent. It was worth it!

Amsterdam

We took the kids to Amsterdam this weekend.  Three days, two nights and we're exhausted!  It's a beautiful city - the canals, fall leaves, architecture, house boats, bicycles everywhere… We stayed right in the center, on Herengracht - an Embassy Row type beautiful street/canal.  The shopping was amazing - brand names, boutiques, cafes, restaurants and the ubiquitous coffee shops.
This was a very different weekend then when we have the chance to getaway without the kids but we had a different type of fun.  We got soaked as we ran through a rainstorm after dinner the first night (I carried Caroline and Jesse had Lauren - Cole was our big trooper!).  We walked hand-in-hand with the kids through the Red Light District, at 9:30 a.m.  We didn't see any Rembrandts or Van Goghs but we did visit Nemo, the Netherlands' largest science center for kids.  It was fantastic and even Caroline was amused.  We had the most delicious Starbucks lattes along the harbor.
We ate in a converted water pumping station near Westerpark (Cafe Restaurant Amsterdam), a tiny luncheonette and a cozy brasserie (Luden) in the historic district and an amazing pancake house (Pancakes! Amsterdam).  For whatever reason, all four meals were orderly and although not quite relaxing, they were absent of screaming, crying or anyone leaving their seats before it was time to go.  Whew!
We walked all over town, over to Vondelpark which is a beautiful green space but the playground left a lot to be desired, by the Anne Frank House so we can remind the kids they saw it when they learn about it later, and rode a canal ferry through the beautiful waterways of the city.  This last trip (which was actually our first excursion) proved to be the most painful as Caroline lost interest about half-way through the ride and we couldn't get off until it finished.  Luckily, although she proved to be very vocal at various times throughout the long weekend, she regained composure (or wore herself out as it might be) and we really did enjoy the trip.  Next time though, we want to try it on our own!

Ready for a canal ride

Nemo Science Center

Daddy's Coming Home!

Tonight's our last night on our own.  Jesse's been traveling for almost 3 weeks, back home in Washington.  We miss him terribly and are so excited to welcome him home tomorrow and celebrate his birthday on Sunday.  Otherwise, it hasn't been that bad.
We found an amazing babysitter, Emilia.  She's Argentinian, speaks Spanish, French and English and loves kids.  I've been so lucky to have her help these last few weeks that it actually felt relaxing at times (not the times Caroline kept screaming, but the other times).
The first weekend we spent Saturday night at our close friends, Kate & Jonas Hannestad, and their kids, August & Aksel, for movie night and Asian take-out.  Kate's from Baltimore, Jonas is from Norway and the kids were born in New Haven, CT (Yale U).  We've ended up spending many a weekend night hanging out together and it's the best thing to have something as normal as real friends.
Following up on that we were invited to Cole & Lauren's classmates James & Alice's house on Sunday morning since their "mum" Victoria (England) said she understood weekends were the worst when her spouse was traveling.  It was a cozy rainy morning.
The next weekend, I went out to dinner Friday eve with Kate & Jonas and their friend Caro (France) and had a fabulous three-hour dinner event.  Saturday was a miserable experience stocking a full grocery cart at a new bulk grocery store only to learn they only accepted cash or debit, neither of which I had on my person.
Both weekends we visited the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History.  It's free, it's an airplane hangar and it's actually pretty awesome.  The second Sunday we ran into Kate & Jonas there and ended up planning a pool party and dinner for the afternoon before they took off to the South of France for the holiday.
This week was La Toussaint, or half-term, or week off in the middle of the fall when Europeans take more vacation.  It was actually much easier not to take the kids to school and pick them up again then to have two of them gone for six hours a day.  Monday I took Cole & Lauren to Oceade, an indoor watermark by the Atomium.  Although they were both a little young for the all the sections, it was a lot of fun and we especially enjoyed the wave pool and hot tubs.  Tuesday was Ikea day and then playdate at Lauren's classmates Rory & Vera's house with a few other great moms and three year olds.
Wednesday we tried the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.  As Cole said, the museum is just not for us.  Although everyone raves about the largest dinosaur bone exhibit in Europe (and it is amazing, putting the National History Museum exhibit to shame), my kids don't love dinos and therefore, all they noticed was the lack of elevators and me huffing and puffing with Caroline and her stroller on the stairs.  At least we rode the bus there and back - yea public transportation…
Thursday was probably the best day yet, we stayed home and went swimming in the morning, then in the afternoon, we went to a friend of a friend's house for a little Halloween party.  Belgians don't really celebrate Halloween, though they want to.  Luckily for us, the hosts were Belgian/American and knew what they were doing.  The kids even got to go trick-or-treating around Uccle, the neighborhood to our south, though the absence of chocolate treats is a bit ironic in the land of chocolate, isn't it?
Today, Friday, Emilia came to spend the morning with the kids and I went on a long run through the Bois de la Cambre.  I've started running again when I can get out and it feels really good, plus the park is beautiful.  This morning was odd as a strange woman called my attention, struck up a conversation about visiting Brussels and asked if she could run with me.  Sure, I don't treasure this hour of solitude at all, come along!  Luckily I don't think she was too crazy, though she did want to grab coffee and meet for lunch later, but I dodged that one fast.  I managed to spend the rest of my morning wandering my neighborhood looking for an open coffee shop but being that it was a Belgian National Holiday (All Saints Day), I spent a long time wandering and ended up grabbing sushi and hot tea and reading my Kindle all by myself - glorious!  Later the kids and I napped, we went for a walk to scrounge up some dinner and everyone went to bed by 8.
Tomorrow night Jesse & I will go out to celebrate his 40th birthday!

La Ferme Nos Pilifs

Movie Night Chez Hannestad

L'Abbaye de la Cambre

Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History

Oceade

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Ready to trick-or-treat