Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Glückliches neues Jahr!

Please consider this post both our Christmas card and holiday letter all wrapped into one. We were a bit late getting some Christmas photos done this year.  But they turned out so well, I just had to share.

This has been an interesting year to say the least.  Lots of changes both positive and otherwise.  We started the year off celebrating in Florida with friends and family.  This year we will spend Christmas here in Switzerland, our home away from home, enjoying a quiet Christmas but missing friends and family back home.  Looking back over photos of us at the beach this time last year, I question not going back for some sunshine, especially being dreary cold and wet here at the moment.  But we also enjoy our low key Christmas here as well, making homemade sugar scrubs and cinnamon rolls.

Our close friends took pity on us and invited us to spend Christmas Eve and a Christmas Dinner with them at their respective homes.  We had a fabulous time (although Christmas arrived with a bit of head cold for Erik and I - but never fear we are better already thanks to essential oils and lots of rest). We made it to the Zurich zoo yesterday, a bit of a Christmas tradition when we are here for the holidays. It's fun to see the penguins march around.

In other news Erik started his own consulting firm and is providing geological services in both the US and Europe.  His focus is currently on mine planning and I am proud to say he passed the PG exam earlier this year. I am currently studying to become a Holistic Health Coach and hope to offer services by the summer of 2018, which compliments my essential oil business as well.

The kids are doing great in both school and life in general.  Alison has taken to 1st grade quite well and is great about doing her homework as soon as she gets home.  Unfortunately we can't say the same for her violin practice. She has also taken up tennis this year. She was in her first ballet recital at the end of September and had a starring role until she twisted her ankle climbing a tree the day before the show.  She was a trooper and still performed, just not the main part. She rides a bike almost as big as mine these days and is about a head taller than most kids in her class.

Miles is doing great in kindergarten.  He has lots of friends (both boys and girls) and his Swiss German has really improved this year.  He loves anything having to do with Lego Ninjago and loves to show off his spinjitzu moves to anyone who will watch.  He finally learned to ride a bike this year.  He continues to crack us up on a daily basis with his witty sense of humor. A couple of weeks ago he told us that Christmas is about love and sharing.  I could not agree more.

Some highlights from 2017:

We enjoyed a long visit to Florida back in January where we were spent quality time with friends and family. We did several trips to the beach as well as some trips to Disney and the Kennedy Space Center.  Upon our return "home" we did a bit of snow skiing at our favorite spot in Austria.  We did lots of hiking, biking and one or two camping trips in the spring.  The kids and I visited Budapest for Spring Break with another friend and her son.  We enjoyed tons of good food as well as the local historical sites. In May, we went on a church retreat weekend in Ulm, Germany that the kids and I really enjoyed. I went on a work trip to Amsterdam for a few days by myself which was unique. We had a really warm summer here and spent many afternoons at the pool or hiking in the beautiful mountains.  Toward the end of the summer we got the pleasure of showing our friends from London around.  We even got some late summer snow in the mountains during their visit.

Earlier in the year, I won an incentive trip to visit doTERRA's arborvitae distillery in Vancouver, followed by a trip to their annual convention in Salt Lake City in September.  This was a fun "work" trip for me, even if my luggage never made it on the trip with me.

In October, we spent the fall break in North Carolina, where Erik and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary.  We made a quick trip down to Florida so Erik could take the PG exam and we could visit with friends and family as well.

We've been enjoying quite a bit of snow so far this winter.  The kids have had a blast playing in it.

We are enjoying our lives here and reinventing ourselves quite a bit.  It feels a bit scary and strange but at the same time the right thing to do.  We have high hopes that things will take off for us next year and our respective businesses will thrive as well.  Our hope is to continue our good path and help others in the process.  We wish the same for all of you.

Huge thanks to all of you who contributed to our Heifer International Wish List drive this year in lieu of Christmas gifts. We raised over $1,500.  The kids really enjoyed seeing how many cows and llamas and chickens we could donate and learn about how one animal can have a positive impact on an entire community.  It was also nice not having too many presents under the tree, the kids didn't even notice.  I would also like to thank those of you that send gifts and cards to us during the holidays and really all year.  The kids (and I) love receiving anything in the mail, it brings our far away home a little bit closer.

Wishing all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Fall Break 2017

We took advantage of some cheap flights to spend the three week fall break in North Carolina. Erik had not been back in six years, actually since we moved to Switzerland, so it was fun to visit as a family again.  I'll touch on some of the highlights.

Cousins

We arrived in Charlotte after a very long flight, where we normally have another 3 hour drive to my parents house. But my mom had a great idea that we would stay in Charlotte for a few nights at a fun kids hotel and get over our jet lag.  My step-sister flew up from Florida, and my step-brother and his wife came over with their kids from Raleigh. So we had a mini family reunion to start our holiday.  The kids, although tired, rallied and enjoyed all the excitement of hanging out with relatives they don't see very often. The Lodge had a huge indoor water park, putt putt golf and an arcade to name just a few highlights.  I personally loved the breakfast buffet complete with biscuits and gravy, real southern grits and french toast - yummy. After two days of non stop stimulation (and food) we were ready to head to the peacefulness of the mountains.

Family reunion

My parents' mountain home is absolutely gorgeous, with the most stunning views of the area. We were graced with really lovely weather practically our whole trip. Although I think we did miss peak leaf season by a week or two. Honestly, it was great to just decompress for a few days and sort of relax as Erik and I have been super busy with starting our own separate businesses this year.  That is what is great and sometimes not so great about the digital age of working for yourself - you can pretty much work from anywhere in the world but at the same time you can never really get away from it. Erik was also studying for an exam he would take in Florida, but it was still a nice setting to do all that "work".  My parents are always great hosts, stocking the fridge and pantry with healthy food for us, as well as plenty of fun activities for the kids.  I mean who else has an indoor bounce house and trampoline (outdoors of course)

Great day at the Cape

After a few days, we flew down to Florida for a super quick visit to see family and friends.  We visited my grandmother (the kids great grandmother) in the afternoon and then Erik headed to Tampa for his exam on Friday.  On Friday the kids and I spent the day with my brother and his wife, my cute nephew and my step-mom.  We had so much fun going out on the lake for a bit.  Saturday we visited the Kennedy Space Center with Erik's family and had a great time.  I hadn't been there in decades and was really impressed, as were the kids.  We had a nice seafood dinner after on the water.  Sunday we had breakfast with some great friends before church and then I headed down to Jupiter to teach class #2 that weekend.  Erik stayed and visited his friends and family for the rest of Sunday. On Monday we flew back to North Carolina.  So yes Florida was a bit of a whirlwind tour but always great to see friends and family.

Enjoying some quality alone time in Asheville

We had a few more days at my parents place and then Erik and I scooted over to Asheville to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary.  I love Asheville and although we've been there many times, we usually only do day trips there.  It was really fun to spend three whole days and nights there and really get to experience it.  We went hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway and saw two bears.  Later that same day as we were headed to dinner, there was a huge black bear sitting in front of our cottage eating acorns from the tree.  It was quite the day for bear sightings. We really enjoyed all Asheville had to offer and it was so wonderful to reconnect with one another.  We had several outstanding meals, listened to some blue grass and drank some local beer.  We also met up with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time and just enjoyed hanging out for a bit.  It was a really great way to celebrate our anniversary. This month also marks our 6 year anniversary of moving to Switzerland. I can honestly say I never thought we'd be here that long but now I can honestly say we are pretty happy living abroad.


The last few days of our trip were filled with some last minute shopping.  I always stock up on clothes for the kids and I.  Miles and Ali also learned the fine art of chopping and stacking wood for the winter, which could be considered one of the highlight of their trip.

All in all a wonderful holiday.  My apologies to those of you we missed while we were back.  And thanks to all of you who hosted or helped with our transportation.  We really appreciate it.

Serious putt putt happening

Possibly A & M's favorite spot

Bus tour at the Space Center

Cousins

More Cousins

Behold the Space Shuttle Atlantis

Family phot

Sea Life

Visiting friends they miss

Reading time with Grandma Warm

 Fancy new soda machines

Sweet girl

Anniversary "bear" hike

Lunch in "Little Switzerland"

Corn toss

Group photo

Waterfalls

Hiking

The $1M view

The lodge 

Family putt putt

Inseparable

Cousins

Another highlight of his trip

Brunch with these sillies 

Filling some big shoes

The kids pretending to be sad when we left for our getaway

That view

Kids hauling wood - earning their keep

Grampa made them walking sticks

Spring Break - Ticino

Easter Kids Table

The kids had two weeks off for Spring Break in April. We visited Budapest the first week and then flew home and celebrated Easter with Erik and close friends. Easter turned out to be a cold rainy day but we had a lovely brunch nonetheless.  Unfortunately we didn't get to hide Easter eggs out in the garden as we had hoped, so the kids ended up hiding them in the house and on the balcony.  I was fearful an egg or two, would be left unnoticed for a few weeks but so far so good.

Family Selfie

Serious Bed head

We had a few days of cold rainy weather during our 2nd week of spring break, so we headed down to one of our favorite warm spots in Ticino where the weather is always nice.  We really enjoy this location, easy access on our bikes to Lake Maggiore, a fun river the kids can sit next to in the morning, great playgrounds, and close enough to Italy to enjoy authentic gelato and Italian Cuisine.  This trip was a bit lackluster. For starters there were forest fires up in the hills which honestly didn't bother us, meaning we couldn't see or smell the smoke BUT the helicopters were scooping up water less than 100 yards from the tent. This was a bit loud and annoying to say the least. Of course the kids were thrilled for the first 15 minutes as they watched 3 different helicopters take turns scooping and carrying the water to the hills but this went on all day long until about 8pm the first night.  The second day we were awoken at 6am with same helicopters scooping beside our tent, but luckily later that day it stopped being constant noise, UNTIL - a flare up at 1:30am - yep helicopters scooping water less than 100 yards from our tent at 1:30 in the morning.  Now, I love everything about camping except the sleeping on the ground part.  I just can't get comfortable and all the sounds and noises bother me - well amazingly enough our kids slept through what sounded like a make shift air base that night while I cussed and tossed and turned and looked at my phone.

In addition to the crazy wake up call and constant helicopter noise, it was also really cold at night and into the early mornings.  Let's just say we weren't quite prepared for temperatures to drop to freezing at night.  Some nice tent neighbors across from us mentioned that they were impressed we weren't using a heater and offered to let us borrow their extra one.  Thank goodness for these nice people because I was freezing and kids were sleeping with a silly amount of layers.

Slow Up

But then Ticino redeemed itself on our last day, the sun warmed us up and we were able to participate in the local Slow Up.  A Slow up is a well organized bike event where they close some of the roads to car traffic and have make shift parties every 5 or 8 km.  It is also very family friendly, with bouncy houses and endless treats and games for the kids. This one was really nice and one of the stops was at an organic (bio) farm where we had some of the best cheese, polenta and gelato I've ever tasted. It was a beautiful day of biking  And Ali, holy cow that girl rides a bike almost as big as mine now - no complaints, just frequent breaks for 20km.  Could not be prouder.

All in all a great April.  It's already shaping up to be a warm summer. (Maybe I can finish our May adventures by the end of June).

Easter Shaninigans 

Natural Egg Dying attempt

Easter Egg fun

Thanks for all the goodies and cards from the US

Looking handsome in his Easter outfit

Introducing the locals to Peeps

Helicopter

Sleeping beauties

Beautiful Place

Creating a magic potion

Creating memories

Look at that water

Air show practice in Ticino

Falconaria

Camping helpers

Cold morning breakfast

Breakfast with a view

My Loves

Ali's big bike (she is only 6)

Ready for the slow up

Delicious organic food

Miles needs a haircut