New skill!

Well, I am in the process of mastering a new skill. At the moment, it is a lot of fun to just experiment and cut everything into tiny little pieces. But I also discovered that I can make tickets (like train tickets, tickets for brushing the teeth, ...) and I will write on them. I always have to put them in Papa's pocket (Maybe Oma will remember the song she thought me about the train and how you need to have a ticket in your pocket to be able to ride the train).

Christmas Day

Andrin really enjoyed having Papi at home all day. We took the opportunity of a break in rain and went to our neighborhood park. Andrin loved the ride in his new wagon and on Papi's shoulders. We barely made it back and it started raining again. Just enough time to slide down the slide and do some swinging. While Andrin was taking his nap, Mami and Papi got to work for the big dinner that we celebrated with our friends John and Keiko. What a relaxing and fun day!

Merry Christmas!

What a different experience to celebrate Christmas with a smart toddler ... We actually had to come up with a plan for this year because Andrin already understood the magic of Christmas. He was anticipating opening the presents all day long and to Mami's big surprise, he still did take a great afternoon nap and even fell asleep without crying and Mami sitting right next to his crib. What a big boy our little peanut grew into! We had an earlier dinner and Andrin could hardly eat because he was so excited. He just decided that he was done with dinner and went upstairs to wait for the Christkind (Christ's child brings our presents) on the big bed. Mami could not come up the stairs quick enough to join him. He just could not wait any longer! We played upstairs and every with every little sound, Andrin grew more and more excited. We had told him to wait for the bells and that the Christkind was rather shy and thus did not want us to be downstairs. You should have seen his face when he heard the bells. He literally jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. At the last minute, he got a little bit shy, probably becuase he anticipated that the Christkind was still downstairs. He was surprised to see all the presents, and then also looked for this ominous Christkind which he did not find. As you can see, Andrin got a biiiig present and he was really focused on putting all the presents inside and then taking them out again and then back inside ... until he discovered the train tracks and there was nothing stopping him anymore. But still, after all that excitement and play, he got really tired. Remember the times you wanted to take all the new toys to bed? Well, Andrin decided that it might as well work out for him to go to sleep in his new wagon ... Never less to say that it was rather difficult for him to settle down and fall asleep.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Waiting for Mami to finally get upstairs to wait for the Christkind.

Did I hear the bells?

Last look if he can still see the Christkind ...

All business about opening the presents.

Packing everything back onto the wagon.

Building the train tracks ...

Ready to go to sleep ... why not in his new wagon?

Oh Tannenbaum .... (Oh Christmas Tree ...)

Just before Andrin took his nap, Papi took the Christmas tree inside. Andrin was all excited about it. And when he got up from his nap, I told him that there was a big surprise downstairs. I had just started to decorate the tree and the lights were on the tree. Andrin was a big helper as you can tell. He had his own ideas how to decorate a Christmas tree. But we both agreed at the end that it looked beautiful.

After decorating the Christmas tree, we went for a walk to our neighborhood DVD store. Andrin insisted that he wanted to walk. I was getting worried that we might never make it, but the big puddles were a motivator to keep going. On our way back, Andrin enjoyed all the beautiful Christmas lights from the cockpit of his little red car. He would point out the lights that he especially liked.

Hanging up some of his favorite Christmas tree ornaments.

Helping with the ribbon ...

Mami tied them in nice little bows and this was Andrin's interpretation of my work.

I still think that our Christmas tree looks beautiful. We usually get a Norman tree, but this year, we got a Fraser ... I like the look of it.

Someone was bold enough to say that I had put all the fishing ornaments (believe me, there are lots of them), in the back ...

Another of Andrin's favorite things to do: putting stickers neatly on a big piece of paper.

Some of Andrin's favorites ...

Let me share some of my favorite things that I am doing right now:

Doing the dishes ...

Helping Mami in the kitchen ...

Playing with my fire engine.

See you later, alligator (Theo)!

The boys took turns playing the piano for each other so that the other one could do some dancing.

We actually were planning to head up into the snow (yes, there is lots of snow up in the mountains, even though there is nothing down here) on Saturday. But then we received a phone call from friends telling us that they were not going to make it since the weather predictions were dangerous and more snow was on the way. We turned around and then had a nice morning at home playing with Andrin's friend, Theo. Theo will be moving soon to Florida and it was the last time that we had a chance to see them. We wish Theo and his family all the best and please do not forget to take the helicopter like Andrin suggested instead of the airplane. We will miss you!

Christmas Tree Cutting

Today, we went to cut out Christmas tree. We were lucky for different reasons: no people (we were the only ones on the entire Christmas tree farm), nice and comfortable temperatures and no rain! Instead, we found a wonderful Christmas tree, a lot of mud puddles, even more rain puddles, flooded areas (Andrin wanted to go swimming since the farm's dog went swimming as well), a lot of animals (Andrin was keen on feeding the pigs with pumpkins and the cows). But to be honest, it did not really feel like the Christmas spirit with the nice temperatures. I think Mami will never get used to having a Christmas without snow, let alone with some colder temperatures.

Andrin was scared in the beginning about the tractor ride ... but then actually wanted to go again.

Andrin trying to tell Papi which tree he likes. I think Papi wanted a wider tree.

A nice, big puddle ...

Waiting for the tractor to get back to pick us up. We had company from one of the farm's dogs. He followed Andrin all around. And then was happy when Andrin started throwing balls for him.

Happy as can be in the back of the car:
With a BIG M & M's cookie and a new pair of pants and no boots.

Swiss Fondue

Even though the weather is not really conducive to having a cheese fondue, we decided that it was time to get our fondue package out of the freezer. And with all the rain it actually felt good to have something nice and warm in our stomach. Andrin also really was into the fondue, especially the "doing-part." He was mostly nice to Papi and prepared his pieces of bread wrapped in cheese for him.