Snow has finally arrived! It started over the weekend, and has been falling on and off for about four days. As I write this, I am looking through our wall of windows at fluffy snowflakes falling into our backyard, covering trees and bushes with a picturesque white lining. It is truly a Winter Wonderland.
Remarkably, although it’s been snowing for several days, the accumulation is only a few inches. But that’s all it takes. Somehow a layer of snow makes our kids, who refused to go outside when it was a few degrees warmer, want to bundle up and build snowmen, 
throw snowballs, and just stick their tongues out and look skyward. (Or, if that doesn’t yield enough satisfaction, pick up a handful of snow and just eat it.) When they finally come in with rosy cheeks, we snuggle around our fireplace drinking hot cocoa.
The Swiss people love the snow and have been waiting for it longer than usual this year. They have a huge winter tourism season here as people come from all over the world to go skiing and experience a Swiss winter. And now we are starting to see why. I still have presents to wrap and packing to do, so for the moment I am content to enjoy the snow through my windows. I plan to light another fire, put on some Christmas music and sing “Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!”
Besides, this is good preparation for our Christmas in the Alps, where they have had snow for several weeks already. One of our favorite travel guides, Rick Steves, spent Christmas in the Alps a number of years ago. He stayed in Gimmelwald with Olle and Maria, just like we did back in October. Gimmelwald is a smaller town and more secluded setting than where we will be, but his video captures many Swiss things we have experienced, like sledding on traditional wooden toboggan sleds, eating fondue, reckless use of fire, and some Christmas traditions including Samichlaus and Schmutzli (not “Smoochli” as Rick Steves mistakenly pronounces it).
So, from snowy Switzerland, “Frohe Weihnachten!”
