Samichlaus & Schmutzli & Winter Party

The 6th of December is a really special day in Switzerland, especially for the children. St.Nikolaus is coming.
Usually the children prepare themselves with little poems or songs they want to ‘present’ to the holy man, who in turn is pleased by all the efforts of the children and gives them his appreciation!! The well-behaved children get some goodies, such as gingerbreads, cookies, mandarins, nuts chocolate etc, often St.Nikolaus tells the kids a story.

Then the long awaited moment arrives, when St.Nikolaus starts to read out of his golden book and praises the child for his good deeds throughout the last year and offers ideas of ‘betterment’ for the not so good things the child did. (The parents or teachers of the kid usually give these information’s)

He then leaves a birch rod as a souvenir of his visit and a reminder to keep up the good work.

Though in some parts of Switzerland, it used to be customary, that the children who really didn’t behave only got a birch rod and no goodies, basically a bit of the carrot & stick principle to encourage them to better themselves and the promise of goodies the next year.

The historic background in the custom lies in the 4th century AD and was inspired by the Holy Nicolas, Bishop of Myra, who according to legends that surround him, did many a good to youngsters and children and so he became the patron Saint of Children, that he wears a bishops habit and a Mitre shows his holy status, as well as his long beard shall indicate his old age.

The legend of St.Nikolaus got intertwined over the centuries with Celtic customs of Saturnalia, leading to the well-known Samichlaus and Schmutzli.

Schmutzli a dark dressed and dark looking counterpart to Samichlaus is a devilish figure accompanies a holy man. Tradition says that he takes away the bad kids in a burlap sack. This part of the legend scared our friends' 4-year-old so bad because he said he had been bad this year!

Here are our friends Karl & Jacob dressed up as Schmutzli & Samichlaus.


I went to the store with Kelsey on the 6th & Samichlaus was there ringing a bell. My first thought was that he was collecting money but it turns out he was giving kids goodies. Too bad Kelsey was asleep or she may have scored some good stuff.


GS WINTER PARTY
Tonight we left Kelsey with a babysitter for the first time and went to our 20's themed work party. Tal & I didn't dress up but almost everyone else did!



Here are a few of my girlfriends I worked with.

Zermatt- The Matterhorn

Tally found out recently that he needed to take off a few more days of work before the end of the year so we decided to book a trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. With Tally's amazing "deal finder" abilities, we were able to stay in a 5-star hotel for less than 1/5 of the price. Here's a video of us arriving to the hotel.



We ended up taking a nap after we got there, trusting the concierge's weather forecast. Unfortunately, it ended up being the clearest day and snowed the rest of the time. Tally got this shot of me and Kelsey in front of the Matterhorn.



Here's Tally & Kels in downtown Zermatt. The town is all dressed up for the holidays.


Our family has a thing for hotel robes. Too bad they didn't have one for the babe.


These buildings have been here since the 1600's and were used to store animals during the winter. We happened upon this part of town and we're so glad we did! It was pretty cool to see.


A view of the Matterhorn with the snow blowing off of it.


Here's a picture of the Matterhorn from the hotel hot tub.

Christmas is in the air!

The Lindt/Sprungli Chocolate Factory is a few minutes down the street from us so we had to get a picture in front of their Christmas display. Unfortunately, it started raining right as we were about to leave but we went anyway. Kelsey was a trooper being out in the cold, wet weather but she didn't cry - and don't worry, we weren't out for long. This is her new Christmas dress and she seems to love playing with the bow and the lace. So many new things to discover! We also put the decorations up at our place however, there's so few there's not much to show. Enjoy the Christmas tunes - we had fun picking some of our favorite songs and left it on to enjoy the Christmas spirit.

Missing In Action - blame it on a vampire love story

I just finished reading the book "Twilight." Everyone who's read it seems to love it and I had to see what all the fuss was about. I read the 500 page novel in 2 days and I'm not a fast reader. Don't worry, Kelsey is still alive and the house isn't a complete disaster - but I'm not making any promises for this weekend. The two sequels are sitting on my night stand. I made myself put "New Moon" down to play with Kelsey and eat lunch but I'm dying to know what happens next. So, if I'm not posting as much and somewhat missing in action, blame it on Bella and her love affair with a vampire. I'll let you know when I've finished and come back to life. :)

Happy Thanksgiving...2 Days Late

As Thanksgiving is an American holiday, it is not celebrated here in Switzerland. However, that doesn't stop the American's here from going all out. And this year, around 60 people RSVP'd. I did a turkey, yams for 12, and 2 pumpkin pies. After about 10 hours of straight cooking, even our oven was tired. I cooked the yams last and somehow, they didn't turn out. I must have missed a step - but oh well - we had one of the turkeys and had to leave. I put Kelsey in her new Thanksgiving dress and adorable Janie & Jack shoes. Then as I went to put her in the car seat and I hear a big rumble down under if you know what I mean. I went to change her and it was record-breaking explosion of poo, all over her perfectly planned outfit. I changed her, salvaged the dress and off we went. Tal handed me the yams to hold in the car so they didn't spill. About 10 minutes from home, we went up a hill and I suddenly felt warm, sticky liquid creeping up my leg and around my butt. Fortunately or unfortunately, our friend Josh had forgotten to go to the store to bring his butter and jam so we stopped along the way and I managed to find paper towels in the men's bathroom (that's because not a lot of men here wash their hands - gross!). It was a hectic start to our Thanksgiving feast but I couldn't have done it without Tally. He even stayed up until 3am to take the last pie out of the oven. Lucky for him the BYU Basketball game was on. Anyway, we had a button-popping good meal and had a really good time hanging out with our friends here.

This is only part of the line of people. Our friend Jenny put this whole thing together and we had it at a school cafeteria.

Now you might say a good nap was in store after this crazy turkey feast but instead, we got all hyped up for the BYU GAME!! We left the school and went over to our friends house to watch. Tally brought our laptop with Slingbox and we hooked it up. About 20 people came over after the dinner and we fully invaded their house! It was fun to cheer on the Cougs with a crowd of fans. We only had one Ute at the party but deep down he bleeds blue so he was allowed to come. :) It was a painful game to watch until the last 5 minutes. I about to go into depression mode when Kelsey woke up. I went in one of the bedrooms to feed her and I came out to everyone cheering! I ran out to see BYU pull ahead and make the game-winning touchdown. It was a wonderful sight to behold. Once again, Kelsey cried when everyone cheered but she'll get used to it ;).


Tal and "Kelso," Tally's little boy.

Some of the guys anxiously waiting for the game to begin

Kelsey and Matthew. One day she'll be swooning over him...

Sometimes I Just Watch You

Sometimes I Just Watch You
In awe
I should, could, would
dishes
laundry
phone call
blogging
But instead I just hold you
And watch
As though I've never seen a baby
This smart
This smiley
With bright-eyed curiosity
And I savor
Every laugh to your single audience
A twinge of guilt that I get you all to myself
I'm mommy

Tagged: Me & My Other Half

I was tagged by my friend Ashley, so here goes. I tag anyone who hasn't done this in awhile. It ended up being fun!

What is his name? Talmadge Layton Price - yes, they are all towns in Utah, although that's not the reason he's named those names. His mom liked the name Talmadge and Layton is after his grandpa who is not from Utah and was not born LDS.

How long have you been together? We're coming up on our 5 year mark this summer.

Who eats more? It's a tie. Yep, I eat a lot and he doesn't eat that much for a guy.

Who said I love you first? He did :)

Who is taller? He beats me by almost a foot.

Who sings better? Neither one of us is very good but I love to sing. Once I made him sing a duet with me at our family gathering. It wasn't good, but maybe sweet? We sing to Kelsey all the time though. Tally makes up songs as he goes and he's actually really good at that.

Who is smarter? It depends on the subject. I'm better at German but he's smart about investments and math. I suck at math.

Who does the laundry? I do mostly now but he used to do it a lot when we both worked. He still brings it up from the basement for me sometimes (we share a laundry room with one other tenant who always leaves his boxers in the dryer).

Who does the dishes? Funny you should ask. He says that when we were dating I said I'd do the dishes and he'd vacuum. What really happened was that I said I prefered the dishes to vacuuming. HOWEVER, I did not agree to a lifetime of dishes. They need to be done at least 3x per day and vacuuming only happens 2x per week. However, I do end up doing the dishes most of the time but he mops the floors. I hate mopping.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Right or left doesn't matter for us. I always sleep next to the door. It used to be because I got up to go to the bathroom. Now it's convenient with the baby. So right now I sleep to Tally's right but we may switch our room around which would put me to the left.

Who pays the bills? He does. To pay bills here, you have to go to the bank and use a multimat machine where you put your bill in the machine and it takes it out of your account. It's pretty cool but I've actually never done it. I've only watched.

Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn and haven't our whole marriage! IF we did have a lawn he would do it.

Who cooks dinner? I usually come up with the idea and make sure we have all the food. I set it out and start before he gets home however with the baby, he usually ends up cooking the majority of it.

Who drives when you are together? He does, I prefer to be the passenger.

Who is more stubborn? He is. But I can be about certain things.

Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? I am. He would say it's because he's always right but we all know that's not true.

Whose parents do you see the most? When we lived in Salt Lake we lived with his parents for a time and then right down the street however since we moved to Switzerland, we've seen my sister, cousin & parents.

Who kissed who first? Tally, on the second or third "hang out" after tutoring me in Spanish. After he left, I ran and slid across the kitchen floor and into my awaiting roommates. It was comical.

Who proposed? He did on Easter weekend with an "egg hunt." We ended up at a mountain peak in Provo and it was very romantic. It's one of the few times I've seen Tally emotional.

Who is more sensitive? I am. See above.

Who has more siblings? He does by 2. He's the youngest of 5, I'm the oldest of 3.

Who wears the pants in the family? It depends what it's about. I take charge about the house, he's in charge of finances. Like Sandra, we each have a leg and walk side by side.

Ballerina Verse

Two Months Already!

Update on Nov. 17th: I hope I don't jinx this but....SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! At least what I would consider night. She slept from 10pm until 5:15am. I only wish I hadn't waited up until 1am thinking she'd wake up! I so hope this lasts and just gets longer. I started "cluster feeding" before bedtime about 3 days ago and she slept 6 hours the first 2 nights and now 7. I definitely have a "textbook baby" for all you Baby Whisperers out there. I'm such a lucky mom. I'm sure the second child will be a terror. Here's some pics over the past week or so.

Our friends Niina & Marko and their daughter Wilma came over tonight to "celebrate" (actually we just had dinner, dessert, and good conversation). At times the girls had crying competitions but mostly they were pretty good. One day they'll actually notice eachother and maybe even interact! ;) Well the adults had fun anyway, though their idea of fun has changed a bit in the past few months. It was fun to swap newborn stories and look forward to more fun memories with the Wuorinens.


Niina set the table and taught me how to do that cool thing with the napkins. Oragami 101! My table has never looked so good.


The proud papas giving the mamas a break


Isn't Wilma so sweet!


Kelsey and Wilma "playing"


Finally, a decent picture of me and Niina!


Family Photo

First Snow at Our House