Holiday Recap

Finally getting around to uploading some pictures. If you haven't received our holiday card, it's because I never got around to sending them, and here's why... Frédéric had his annual meeting in San Francisco, and another meeting in Switzerland, so we decided to make it a round the world (or at least two continents and one ocean) trip and join him.


We all flew to So Cal together, then he flew up to SF while Angelina, Lenaïc and I stayed with the family for a week. Lots of outings with cousins: beach, Christmas play, Hannah's horse show, walk to see the over-the-top Christmas lights on Thoroughbred in Rancho Cucamonga, picking out and decorating a Christmas tree for Uncle Chris and family, decorating Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce's tree, ice skating, playing with cousins....ending on Sat with a family birthday party for Lenaïc, which special guests of honor: Chip and Trisha (Chip is my old diving coach whom I've known since I was 6!). (For pictures see HERE)

Lenaïc was a little grouchy at his birthday party, and a few hours later I learned why. When we woke him at 3:30am to leave for the airport for our 6am flight, he had a temp of 102.7F! Fortunately, a little tylenol brought it down and no more fever after that - Phew!

Then the LOOOOOONG flight to Geneva. Stop in Denver, Stop in Washington Dulles, then overnight flight to Geneva. Apparently, Lenaïc didn't get the memo that overnight flights = sleep. he was feeling fine so not fussy, but so not interested in sleeping. We'd beeen lucky as Angelina has always been a really good (read sleeps a lot) flier. Lenaïc, on the other hand, must have thought this was the party flight. Lucky for us, the flight attendants loved him and were happy to have him join them in the galley and played games with him for a few hours while the rest of the plane slept. Unfortunately, not me. Still, I can't complain too much as he hardly cried.


After a visit with Granpapa, we headed off to Bern so Frederic could work while I played with the kids. We took a lot of walks, and Angelina had an art class at the Paul Klee Museum which was very cool! Then back to L'Abergement for sledding, ice skating, visiting cousins and friends, Christmas parties, New Year Parties, and more! For more pictures, see HERE

Holidays with Family

Our visit with Santa and why I love Lavaca, part XIV

Let me preface this by saying Angelina doesn't really "know" Santa Claus (Pere Noel). Not for any philosophical reason, we've just never gotten 'round to talking about him. Maybe that makes us lame-o parents, but in any case, Santa Claus is a foreign concept. Of course, if I thought threats of Santa not coming would help her behave, I'd be talking about Santa left and right....

So on to why I love Lavaca. This wasn't actually in the 'hood, but close enough to ride our bikes, so it counts as a reason to love it. The city hosted a Winter Holiday Spectacular! at HemisFair Park. Santa was there for pictures (and no waiting in line), there was a snow slide, then in the evening Movies by Moonlight (aka Slab Cinema aka Angela and Rick, our neighbors) showed "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "A Christmas Story," and "It's a Wonderful Life" on the lawn. One of the great things about San Antonio was that it was 75F (24C) during the day and only a little cooler once the sun went down. Great for watching outdoor movies! (Not so great for snow...the environmentalist in me cringes at the idea of trying to create a "Winter Wonderland" when it's in the 70sF, but the mom in me admits it was kind of cool...) Of course, today it's 46F (8C) and super windy. Then later in the week it'll be in the 80s again.

So back to Santa. Angelina is normally quite happy to talk to any random person. Wherever we go she says "Hi" to everyone she sees. Apparently the big red suit and white beard threw her off and my arguments of "He's just like Opa" didn't fly. We walked up slowly, she ran behind me and clutched my pants, afraid to even look. Santa was wonderful and chatted with her and did everything to make her comfortable, but she wasn't having it. We stuck around for awhile, she took my camera (as usual), and started taking pictures. So we now have about 20 pictures of Santa, and some of Santa with a little boy named Raymond, to whom Angelina kept saying "Smile!" as she clicked away, but none of her with Santa. She even told the other kids to go sit with Santa. But not her.

To be honest I'm kind of glad she doesn't know to "ask Santa" for presents. But I don't know how long that will last. For now, I think she'd be happy with a huge bowl of tortellinis.