Oma and Papa Arrive

On Sunday, November 25th, Jay headed back to Deerfield for his last trip of 2007. It was the first time he has left on a business trip when we all cried... even though it was only a 3-day trip, we were ready to have him back home! Luckily, Santa came to the rescue and offered me a great diversion for the kids - the Santa Parade arrived in Zurich that night.

It was a wonderful event - started at 5pm (when it is absolutely pitch dark here) and was held on the Bahnhofstrasse (our equivalent of Rodeo Drive). The kids loved being outside at night (Kate is now officially in love with the moon - a reversal from her former sentiments), and loved seeing all the lights.

But mostly they loved seeing SANTA - who gave them a cookie as he passed by! Every time we see a picture of Santa, they tell me, "I saw Santa. Santa gave me a cookie!" In Switzerland, Santa is accompanied by Schmutzli - his alter ego, who dressed in a dark hood - and allegedly takes naughty kids up to the forest if they haven't been good. (We've modified the story to tell the kids Schmutzli will bring them a rock in their stocking) Having said that, the kids even loved seeing Schmutzli - who was not so scary upclose. It was a really nice evening and a perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

The next few days were fairly uneventful until Oma and Papa arrived on Wednesday for our belated Thanksgiving celebration. Kate and I met them at the train station (they were coming in from Paris), and after checking them into their hotel, Papa and I went to pick up Jack from school - he was so excited to see Papa - very fun to watch. Jay also returned from the US on Wednesday, so we had a terrific homecoming dinner for all - featuring a 150 CHF beef tenderloin!

On Thursday, after a fun morning of shopping for Christmas presents at the toy store with Kate, Oma and Papa, we had a little hiccup - I somehow managed to lock us out of our apartment by leaving the key in the lock (on the inside of the door) and then closing the door behind me. Apparently, this is equivalent to murdering the lock - and not only did it require about a dozen phone calls to the wonderfully forgiving woman who helped us find our apartment and an emergency visit from the locksmith (who didn't speak a lick of English), it will also require re-keying every door on our entire building before we leave - let's hope that "repatriation bonus" is really great! As Jay told me, my Christmas gift will be a new keychain for my expensive keys. Kate embraced the lockout situation by curling up in my jacket and trying to nap (see picture).

All was fine until the lock had to be drilled out, which she did not like and luckily, had Oma to cuddle with.

That night, Oma and Papa babysat while we went to Jay's Baxter Christmas party. It was a terrific night and a chance to get to know some of his colleagues (and their partners) better.

On Friday night, after a day of appointments (Jack's 4 year old checkup, swim lessons and a haircut for me!), we took Oma and Papa out for a traditional Swiss fondue dinner. We all loved the cheese fondue and ate far more than we probably should have!