Snowshoeing

After recovering from some horrible jetlag from our Christmas trip back to Chicago (Lukas up from 12am-4 or 5am the first 5 nights), we finally are back on track and made it up to the mountains again for some snowshoeing last weekend. We stayed in a hotel at the top of a mountain that (obviously) had a sledding hill right outside the door. Lukas loved it & kept asking to 'go by myself'' - which thrilled his dad & worried his mom. The hotel also lit lanterns at night throughout the woods so that you could take a hike by the lantern light - really magical. Halfway through the hike there was a cute little hut that had hot cider - reason #10,003 that I love Switzerland! The next day we went on a 3 hour snowshoe hike - Lukas did great - walked about 1/2 on his own & the other half in the backpack - he's becoming quite a little hiker.

Kinderhueti

On Monday mornings I drop Lukas off at the local park where a group of parents takes turns watching the kids (Kinderhueti). The kids play outside year long unless the weather is really nasty. HOWEVER, Lukas has been going for almost 2 years now, and they have yet had a day that they've considered the weather "bad" enough to go inside. The first few times I dropped Lukas off in the rain, I felt really bad (and even worse when I was back inside a nice dry apartment enjoying a hot cup of coffee) But, it seems that the wetter & muddier he is, the bigger the grin when I come to pick him up. He loves it!

Samichlaus, St. Nick, Santa........

In Switzerland, Samichlaus visits on Dec. 6. He looks like an old-fashioned St. Nick and brings "goodies"for kids that have been good. Goodies in Switzerland, though, mean clementine oranges, peanuts in the shell, lebkuchen and chocolates. Toys get delivered by a different fellow (Christkind) but not until Dec. 25 . Anyways, we went on a little hike to visit Samichlaus at his hut in the woods. He was there with his "Schmutzlis" - his helpers that are dressed like monks (and look pretty scary in my opinion!) and also his donkeys that help him deliver the goodies. Surprisingly, Lukas wasn't scared of either Samichlaus, the Schmutzlis or his donkeys. We went into the hut where Samichlaus told us a little story while we sat around his woodstove. Afterwards, Lukas did get some peanuts which he was as excited about as if they were M&Ms.

Of course, to further confuse things for Lukas, we also follow a Dutch tradition in which we put our slippers out the night before (Dec. 5) and St. Nick comes and puts some treats in them. This year he brought Lukas some playdough.

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Finally, we celebrated Christmas this year in Chicago with the Lapsins family. Lukas was really into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and watched the video about 25 times. Santa came and spoiled him as expected. Lukas asked a few times about St. Nick, schmutzlis, donkeys, etc. but as long as the goodies kept coming I don't think he was too worried about the details ---yet.