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.

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?

Facebook killed my blog. Then Zynga killed my facebook. Farmville ate my whole life for a while, but I’m over that now. I’ve got too many more important things to do! I don’t want to make dramatic resolutions and say, “Everything’s going to be different now!” But, well, everything’s going to be different now! I’ve found an easy way to share my blog entries on FB, so I’m going to test this out and hopefully bring my blog back to its intended purpose.

It’s nice and quiet around here at the moment. My family went skiing for a few days, so I have the place to myself. It’s amazing what I can accomplish when I don’t have to stop every few hours to feed people. Making progress on my book again, and hoping to get some other projects back on track soon. I’m grateful to be in good health again, and I’m going to start working on my “winter poundage” today. I’m always at my max weight this time of year, thanks mostly to the gifts of Swiss chocolate I receive! So, an hour on the bike, then an hour in the tub, sounds good.

Wishing everyone a good slide into the new year, and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!

Spring Break was typical–too short! We/I …
* stayed at Mom’s,
* hung out with Steve,
* played mini-golf with James Dylan,
* had a mini Fat Kid get-together at Jake’s,
* enjoyed Easter at Mom’s,
* took off with Nanette,
* had a dinner date,
* bar-hopped in downtown St. Pete with Cameron,
* visited with my uncles and aunt,
* stayed a few days at the beach,
* played poker,
* went dancing,
* ate lots of great seafood …

The trip home was very atypical. Our plan …
Friday
1:30 pm – depart The Lane
4:00 pm – depart Tampa on a half-empty plane for Boston
7:30 pm – depart Boston for Zurich
Saturday
2:00 am (Eastern, 8:00 am EuroTime) – arrive Zurich

Our reality …
Friday
1:30 pm – depart The Lane
2:30 pm – dash between JetBlue and Delta counters trying to find seats to Boston or New York
4:30 pm – depart Tampa for JFK
7:30 pm – arrive JFK, dash to Swiss counter to try to get seats to Zurich or Geneva
9:30 pm – depart JFK for Hilton Hotel
Saturday
3:30 pm – depart Hilton Hotel for JFK
6:00 pm – scored three Business Class seats on a flight to Zurich that they told us was full, saving us another hour and a half waiting for the Geneva flight
Sunday
2:00 am (Eastern, 8:00 am EuroTime) – arrive Zurich

The flight to Zurich was wonderful! The new plane had only been in service a couple of days. The Business Class seats reclined into beds, and the bathrooms were so shiny! I watched a great movie called “Seven Pounds” starring Will Smith, and even managed to sleep a couple of hours, even though I had lain in bed all day at the hotel. The overnight stay helped a lot against jet lag.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Finally! The days are longer than the nights! How happy I am to come into the light half of the year! My family is off in Adelboden, getting in their last skiing of the year. I’m enjoying the free time (no cooking!) trying to catch up on updating my transfer to my new computer. I got a beautiful new 20″ iMac as a Christmas present. Didn’t get it til last month though, because I was stuck in preparation mode. Had to clean off my desk first! Didn’t make much progress, though, until the iMac arrived. It sat in the corner in the box for two days while I did power-decluttering of my office. Since I was still using the old Mac OS 9, none of my programs and not many of my files could transfer to the new Mac OS X. I’ve had to learn a new system, new programs, redo databases, etc. It’s a ton of work, but worth it! And the toys on this computer are incredible!

But I’m not spending all my time sitting in front of the computer. I’ve found and adapted a system for “home management” (http://www.flylady.net) and am taking better care of my health. Through simple but regular attention to what I eat, how much water I drink, and how much exercise I get, I’ve dropped those annoying extra pounds I’ve been carrying around the last few years. Getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight by Easter is a doable goal.

Then it’s off to Florida to work on my hair, skin and style! If I can at least come back with a pair of jeans that fit, I’ll be happy. A new bikini wouldn’t be bad, either. We will probably miss the tulips again while we are gone. Shame, because we got three mystery bulbs when we visited Wildegg castle last fall, and I’d like to see how they bloom. Dave will have to take pictures for me.