On the Slopes

One of the highlights of our trip to see cousins Sophia and Mathias and Auntie Sarina and Uncle Markus was our days up on the sunny, snowy slopes around Lake Zurich. There are small sledding and beginner skiing slopes all over, many within 20 minutes from their house. Each park has rustic little restaurants which serve basic Swiss faire, most complete with 90 year old grannies working in the kitchen. Lu had a great time sledding and was really brave on the long slopes. She was squealing with delight!

Je suis Lulu!

Lu said her name for the first time today. It's funny how her self recognition has added a whole new dimension to her personality. She's now little Lulu and now longer the bebé. We are a family of babbling double syllables; Mama, Dada and Lulu. She also calls herself and other little girls, la petite, which is the French for little girl.
With Christmas just around the corner I've especially enjoyed our tree and the advent calendar that Gramma Jan made for Lu. She seems to recognize Santa, often calling him papa. There isn't as much commerical presence of Christmas here so she doesn't see much outside the house. We are showing her some of the classic shows, Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa is Coming to Town on DVD.

Sinterklass

The Belgians and the Dutch have a wonderful tradition on Dec. 6 which celebrates the arrival of Sinterklass and his helpers Zwarte Piet. Children leave their shoes near the fireplace or the door with carrots for Sint's horse and a note telling him that they've been good. During the night Zwarte Piet sneaks down the chimney and replaces the carrots with kruidnoten cookies, candy, clementines and little gifts for well-behaved children. If children have been bad they are whipped with a switch carried on the belt of Piet. Sinterklass makes a long voyage from Spain each year to bring the treats for the children by boat. When he arrives in the low countries (a different port each year) he mounts his horse and heads out to do his work with many Zwarte Piet helpers.

The fun continues when families work to create poems which poke fun at each other, in the most harmless way, teasing about habbits, love interests or mannerisms. The poem is accompanied with a home made gift which is sometimes only found by decifering a treaure map or series of clues. I love the fact that everyone, young and old, is involved and much work goes into working out the perfect poem and special gift. Kevin and I organized a Sinterklaas treat for Lucienne this year. The carrots and shoes were temporary play things and the cookies and chocolate were a big hit, not to mention the clementines which she loves!

Yada yada yada

Lucienne is quite the conversationalist these days. Some of the new words are coat, tree, boat, cookie, flower among many others. She also tells us when something is "gone" or she wants "more" and is forever asking if we are going to "go" in the "car". We love the cute names for things that aren't quite accurate, but make sense to her. Meemo is for fish, mee for money and due to the shape of her piggy bank, for pigs too. If Lucienne hasn't found the right word for something she will do a little sound effect. Bunnies are a flip of the tongue which is the sound of munching on carrots, she flaps her arms for a duck and meows for a kitty. Lu is learning her colors and can identify and say red, purple, green and blue. It seems each day a new word comes out of her mouth.