On the day my husband’s grandmother died, I had a surprise. I went to the cellar and did a double-take: one of the butterflies had “hatched"–about four months early! There was a storm coming, so I took it upstairs and put it on the Christmas tree. I fed it sugared water daily, and it fluttered around for 27 days. Found it this morning on its back with its little legs up in the air. At least I won’t have to clean any more butterfly poop off my hardwood floor.

My yearly letters are about to go in the mail. But since postage has gotten so high (2 bucks to send a letter to the States!), I’m greatly reducing the number of hard copies I’m sending out. The list of recipients includes immediate family, relatives in Chipley, people who sent me a card last Christmas, people who grew up on the Lane, and people over 70. Everyone else will get a PDF copy via email, and I’ll probably post a copy here as well. Thanks for understanding!

On Saturday, we took the train to Zürich for a family Christmas outing. We arrived at the main train station and wandered through the Christmas Market in the main hall, which was dominated by the Swarovski Christmas tree–50-ft. high with more than 5000 crystal ornaments.
Then we hit the Bahnhofstrasse–one of the most expensive shopping streets in Europe! What a lot of wonderful stores we visited!

I tried to post to facebook from the Apple Store, but I guess touch-pad typing is an acquired skill (i.e. one I don’t have!). We enjoyed seeing the beautiful lights and decorated store windows in the area.

After walking almost to Paradeplatz, we turned around and went back to the Franz Carl Weber toy store. It’s the oldest (130 years) and largest (4 floors) toy store in Switzerland, and there is lots to see and do!
We wanted to go see the Panorama Bar at the old Urania Observatory, but–being Saturday night and all–there was a long line to get in.
So we headed across the bridge to Niederdorf, and found a Mexican restaurant with great food. After dinner, we wanted to make one more stop, to investigate the lights at the Landesmuseum.
We entered the courtyard and discovered an ice skating rink. Lulu got a second wind, and convinced her Papa to go skating with her. I enjoyed a Glühwein (hot mulled wine) at the bar and tried to get some pictures.

Even though we were right next to the train station, we still managed to miss our train. So we had to hang out nearly an hour at the train station, and nothing was open except one or two restaurants. I settled my family at a table and wandered off to take a few more pictures.

We finally got home around midnight. Mathis said he had such a good time that he wants to make it a family tradition.

I don’t understand why a company that makes beauty products would hire a beautiful model, a great make-up artist and a skilled photographer, and then let someone spray paint all over the pictures. They might as well just draw a cartoon.
Here’s a relevant vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

So, I’m thinking about buying more shoes…
It’s not that I’m addicted or anything, I’m just trying to fill in the gaps in my shoe wardrobe. What’s missing still are shoes with treads. Yeah, I have a pair of snow boots, and they’re fine for going to the grocery store or whatever, but they have no style. I hate wearing them to events (like the Gala). Now I’ve found two wonderful pairs of shoes with treads: black ankle boots and beige heeled loafers. The boots are 34% off and have a rave customer review ("wildly comfortable and warm"). The loafers are 53% off and I know they are comfortable, because I have another pair of pumps by this same manufacturer. As an added bonus, both shipping AND return shipping are FREE!
Any reason I shouldn’t buy them both?

“I had had one craving all my life–for the power of self-expression in some imaginative form–but had been too diffuse ever to acquire a technique."–T.E. Lawrence

“The advance of knowledge is an infinite progression towards a goal that forever recedes."–James Frazer