Taking a Snow Day

It's been clear and sunny in Serfaus up until this morning: a few inches of snow fell last night, and more was accumulating when we woke.  The kids asked if they could have a quiet morning at the hotel, skipping their classes, and so we decided to grant them a snow day. So they lingered over breakfast, playing with a Kinderbasteln book that I bought for the holidays, the sort of book that the Swiss love, filled with paper crafts to color and assemble.

Carefully cutting and coloring in the lines, Joey
is a product of his adopted nation.

And then the kids wandered down to the kids club, where Ella quietly assembled one of the enormous contraptions that are her specialty.

My little engineers just needed some time to be themselves, it seems.

We all had lunch together in the hotel. After, we all felt recharged,

For some reason, Ella really reminds me of my sister in this particular picture.

and the snow looked like it had stopped, so we checked the boys in to play in the daycare, and then we three big kids got ready to go up the mountain.

Such a big girl

While we were changing, I made some offhanded comment to Ella, something along the lines of "Oh, you did such a good job of dressing all by yourself!" It's the sort of thing I say to Joey all the time, and for some reason it slipped out.


Well, you should have seen the look that my daughter gave me, dripping with amusement, as she replied drily, "Yes, I'm a very big girl now."

It's so funny to watch Ella as she grows and begins to realize that she needs to humor dear old mom and dad sometimes.  Earlier this morning, Dennis mentioned over breakfast that he'd almost finished his book.  I watched Ella consider this, and then respond, "Oh, good job, Dad! So... what is it about?"

The snow and fog were just starting to lift when we'd dropped off Ella, and we got to enjoy an ever-changing sky all afternoon, a beautiful show of light and fog and shadows.  Dennis and I took several runs on an easy slope that we're beginning to know well, just enjoying ourselves.  I'm glad to say that I'm finally starting to feel stronger and more like myself.

There. That's better.

When we picked Ella up from class, we'd planned to do a few runs with her along the nursery slopes.  They have a cute little woods decorated with dinosaurs, with a trail running through, which we thought she would enjoy.

But unfortunately a grownup cut Ella off at the bottom of our first run, and she fell hard and twisted her knee.  She was in tears, not so much hurt as humiliated and angry with herself.  She wanted to take the train home immediately, but we really didn't want to end the afternoon on such a bad note.  So instead we took a break at the lodge, drinking cocoa and eat chocolate Kinder eggs.

And after we'd rested, Ella agreed to try skiing home, although she seems to have lost a little of her mojo and got scared on one particularly steep bit.  But she made it past that part, and we got to enjoy an empty trail back to the hotel, just us three. I'm really hoping she doesn't get discouraged. She's come so far this week.

When we got back to the hotel, Alex didn't want to leave the art room: they'd pulled out that Perler beads that have been his favorite toy for years. Ella, still recovering, wanted to rest and read in the room, so just Joey and I went to the aprés ski snack time.

Tragically, Ella and Joey missed a visit from Smiley, the mascot of the Kinderhotels and our constant companion at the Smileyhotel that we visited in February. Alex reported that he passed out candy and sang songs with the kids, including the one song, (Ich bin Smiley!) that we've been singing all year long, whenever we want to make each other laugh.

Supper was as delicious and decadent as always. My, but it's going to be hard going home. And the meal was, as you can see, accompanied by a lecture by Dennis on genetic inheritance...because that's how we Geelses roll.

Ella and Alex were riveted, but Joey fell asleep in his schnitzel. Let's say it was because he missed his nap this afternoon.