December begins

The first snow fell in Zürich on Monday, cheering the hearts of skiers and ski resorts who had been worrying about the start of the winter season.  Some resorts were not able to open yet due to the lack of snow in the mountains.  It's a wet, heavy snow here at our lower elevation making for great snowball and snowman packing conditions.  Elisabet came home from school with completely soaking wet mittens and snowpants.  She demonstrated how much more fun the school slide was with a little wetness on it and shot off the end, skidding 3 extra meters on the slippery playground mat.

The kids are busy learning German and Swiss Christmas carols for a Advent singing program next week.  Elisabet's teacher was excited to report that she spoke German to them today (not bad for 2.5 months in school) and Leif's teacher told me that she hasn't needed to use English with him for several weeks now.  Hanna's goal in her school journal was "Ich will sprechen deutsche lauter und fil fil fil besser".  fil= viel= lots  I peeked back through it and noticed her journal entries had switched from being written in English to German quite a while ago.

And more for the photo junkies:
http://picasaweb.google.com/esaveraid/FirstSnow?feat=directlink