New Years Eve 2010

We celebrated and gave thanks for all of our blessing in 2010 and welcomed 2011 with Karsten, Uli, Leonard and Lena Marie Vierke, our good friends from Dubai who now live in Hamburg, Germany. We have a wonderful visit with them, full of skiing, iceskating, celebrating, watching American football and relaxing in front of a warm fire. Both families had a wonderful time with each other.

Skiing Begins

Our family ended its 3 year hiatus from skiing (I am excluding our trips to Ski Dubai) over Christmas holiday. We started with a few days of skiing and ski lessons at Le Crozet in the Jura mountains in France to get our ski legs back. We were joined by the Veirkes, whom we met in Dubai and now live in Hamburg, Germany.  The slopes are only about 35 minutes from our house to the parking lot. Later during the break we spent two days in Chamonix with our neighbors the Trentini family. Kate was skiing after 4 hours of lessons and going town moderately steep immediate slopes after 6 - her instructor Fabian was an amazing teacher. We all love skiing (though the kids are not wild about the falling part) and keep hoping for more snow.

Christmas 2010

We decided to stay in Switzerland for the Christmas this year. We were blessed to have Pamela and Henry be able to make the trip from Brussels to join us. We followed existing Woolley and Vittone traditions (presents on Christmas only and eating tons of butter and cream), and added Santa tracking via the internet to our Christmas experience. We hung stockings, left carrots and cookies for Santa and his reindeer and began Christmas day with eggs benedict – with extra hollandaise, of course. The kids wish for a white Christmas came true as we woke-up to a beautiful snow fall. We had a wonderful time relaxing with family, celebrating and giving thanks for all the beauty in our lives and world.

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Our First Journey Beyond Switzerland

We have truly enjoyed getting to know our surroundings, particularly since we've usually had friends or family with us to share these experiences. At the same time, we've spent most our weekends getting our house to where we want it. Last week our light fixtures got hung and Maria purchased curtains. We are 95% there now. 

We wanted to finally get out of our house for a weekend and decided to venture to southern Germany to visit the Black forest. We left early Saturday and headed to Freiburg, Germany where we spent the day in the city's Christmas market and beautiful cathedrals where, unexpectedly, we were able to listen to a rehearsal of an upcoming concert. It was cold; about -5 Celsius. However, the bratwurst and gluvine kept us warm. 

We stayed the night in a tiny village called Furtwangen, nestled in the heart of the Black Forest. Our room turned out to be a min-suite with a kitchen - plenty of room. We spent the chilly evening together as a family putting a puzzle together, reading, or playing Connect 4. We had a lovely dinner with nice local wines and were amazed at how much further a dollar goes in Germany compared to Switzerland.

The next day we traveled to Titisee - a picturesque down sitting on a lake in the middle of the Black Forest. Steve wanted to buy a cucu-cucu clock - he has fond memories of the Neill's clock - but didn't find one yet. 

It was a quick but enjoyable weekend; it felt so good to get out and travel again.

Thanksgiving and Our First Snowfall

Every year the Woolley family is thankful and amazed by how well God looks over us. This year is no exception. We have again been provided with good friends right here in our neighborhood. The family who shares the house with us is American/Brazilian- (Monica, Nicco and their children, Lorenzo, Camilla and Santi). We pooled our resources in our tiny kitchens to pulled off a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner. The kids couldn't have been happier with snow that didn't stop. There was barely time for them to decorate a few cookies and eat some turkey! When it was time for pie, another wonderful American family joined us-- Amy and Ross Bell and their three kids, Elise, Sydney and Charlie. We were so sedated from the turkey that I guess we forgot to take a picture of them!! Will add one later, I promise.

Part of the Trowbridge Family Makes a Visit

My dear friend, Michelle and Kate's best buddy, Avery (from Dubai) traveled to see us over Eid. Kate and Avery were out of their minds with excitement. There were a few days when the girls had school so Michelle and I took Avery out for some 'home school' trips. She was happy to be with us, but kept asking how much longer until we could pick up Anna and Kate? Kate was not feeling well one day and Avery was happy to stay at home with Kate (squeeeeellllll). But our most memorable day was our trip to the Chamonix ski area in France. The kids had a blast playing in the snow at the top of the lift. It's been a long time since any of our kids have seen snow like this! It was a really, really nice reunion and very difficult to see them go.