Hallo, Herbst

I'm clinging to summer with every fiber of my being: the kids and I are staying outside as much as possible, and squeezing in trips to the pool whenever we can.

But there's something in the air. It's not as bright out when I wake up, and I have to turn on the light to read the boys their bedtime story at night. This morning I saw a mom walking down the street with a fistful of autumn leaves that she and her toddler were collecting. And there all the advertisements next to our train stop are no longer for vacation homes.  They switched them for billboards for cashmere sweaters and winter capes.

Boo!

As much as I love autumn (and I do!), I'm always sad at the end of the summer.  I love the freedom from schedules, and I love having the kids there to play with, and seeing them happy and free from school stress.  But this year I'm especially sad because we're not getting another summer here.  And when the pool closes next week, we'll never ride that waterslide again. And I love that waterslide.

I think part of the problem was that, when we were planning our move here, we never gave the time past this summer much thought.  We were mainly focused on getting the kids comfortable in their new world, and on pulling together a really fun summer break for them and us.

So I think that's why I was so eager to plan some vacations for October and December. And, since I was feeling down, I spent a lot of time this morning looking for other adventures that we could enjoy, particularly as the winter sets in and my favorite places–Lenzburg Castle, the Kinderzoo, the beaches and pools–close for the season.

I especially spent a lot of time thinking about Christmas, since we'll be staying here for the season.  I bought tickets so that we could take the kids on a steam train into the woods, where they'll meet Samichlaus. And I read about the different Christmas markets here in Zürich. And, of course, I watched Rick Steves' Christmas special about the holiday in Switzerland. It kind of made me want to turn my house into a giant advent calendar.  We have a lot of windows. I think we could pull it off.

And while I was noodling around on the internet, Joey solicitously provided pizza snacks.

As I mentioned, my German class has been temporarily cancelled, but Dennis had the afternoon blocked on his calendar to watch the boys, so he came home anyway and kept them for me, freeing me up for an hour and a half of walking around Zürich without a single kid on my arm.

So I spent the time trying to embrace the season, buying some warm clothes for me and the kids.  I especially needed to get Ella some new tights: she has that tall-girl problem of the crotch of her tights hitting her mid-thigh.  But I guess I erred on the side of getting her tights that were too large:

But Ella saw promise in her ridiculously large new tights, and ran back to her room and threw together this little number, which she says makes her look like a professional ice skater.

So I guess when they close the pool, there's a silver lining. They'll get to work grooming the outdoor ice rinks, which open on October 21st. And at least one of us is looking forward to that!