Didn't want to rub it in, but........

Christmas day at Redondo Beach!

Joyeux Noel to One and All!

Allie and Toby- the mischievious elves, are looking forward to the festivities this year! We hope you, gentle reader, have a peaceful and happy time.

I'll sing you Six-oh (and Three-Oh)...

My Mum wanted to celebrate her 60th birthday with her children(Robert also turned 30) and G'children, so we took a wee trip to Bonny Snotland for a weekend of fun in the middle of November.

First stop- dinner at a lovely hotel restaurant near Troon. This was a real 'eat-out' meal, complete with dressing up and courses. Walter and I have taken the boys out to eat a few times, with consequences going from 'alright, I suppose' to 'disasterous'. Maybe it was the setting, or company, or alignment of the planets, but they were angels!

Apero time. Boys sitting nicely. We told Toby to whisper to us if he felt like he was about to 'go crazy'. He rather took to that idea, and a few times we took him for some exploring.

The Stockwells dining with aplomb!. Allie sat beside G'ma at the end of the table. Apparently, he didn't stop talking all night. I've noticed that when he's tired he starts talking and doesn't stop.

Sarah and John. :)

Marie-Claire, Robert and his birthday cake. Somewhere in the lights.
Usually, when Toby's tired, he starts getting more and more frenetic. This time he curled up on my knee and went to sleep. I think we've used up all our gos and won't ever be eating out again. Unless it's pizza on a park bench.

Walter and I went over to Jamie and Susan's new hoose. It came with a hot tub! In Scotland! Ha! It was the perfect opportunity to try it out for the first time, with the support of Jamie's daft brothers. Notice the lack of anyone else......

Ooooh I'm daft.
Daft times 3.

Sadly, I didn't get to see them get out.

Wee Archie.

I finally got to knab the wee bugger. There was stiff competition from his Auntie Sarah, Auntie Marie-Claire and Grandma. His poor mother got the occasional look-in.

I can also testify that he is a stunning redhead! He's started smiling, and would really give it some when he saw my Dad. We reckon it's the beard.
There was a very quick trip to Edinburgh, but no photies were taken.

Kibres Came a Callin'

I'm going to go backwards post-wise, from the most recent event in Suisseland- The visit of Walter's sister Sue, her husband Nick and daughter Wini (7). They made it out for a 2 week trip around Thanksgiving, and Sue got to see her old friend Kim (see previous posts) to boot! We mostly just hung out with them and took the occasional trip around the area. They visited Lauterbrunnen (we went at the end of Oct... posting soon) and the Jungfraujoch, and took a couple of trips to Zurich. Wini wowed the Swiss kids on her skates, and the wee boys had their cousin all to themselves.

Sue and Nick at the Saint Blaise port, smiling despite the cold!
We had the full Thanksgiving meal.

We all took a trip to the Roman town of Avenches (Aventicum in Latin). It had a lovely amphitheater and exhibition of Roman artefacts found there.

Kids on the train. Only a half hour away from Saint Blaise.
A panorama of the amphitheater. Nick on left. Walter in distance.
Everyone down below.
The cousins spent a long time playing games and running around. Better than watching the feeding of the lions.
Alasdair ponders the 2000 years of history there.
Why not finish with an artyfarty pic?
We didn't have time to see the medieval part of the town. Undoubtedly, we'll be back. The Roman exhibition itself is worth it!

So now the Kibres are home, and time flew way too quickly.... they need to come back to finish seeing the sites ;)

The Swiss October Holidays

British schools get one week off in October. Swiss schools get 2, so naturally everyone takes off as the weather starts to get bleaker. This year apparently, foreign travel was up 10% here, due to the awful summer. I know 3 people who went to Tunisia! We took the opportunity to see some closer places.

AOSTA (Aoste for the Francophones)

Walter had some business in Pisa at the beginning of the holidays, so we decided to meet up somewhere in Italy (exotic sounding, eh?). Aosta is only ~3 hours from here, so Walter took the train, and I drove the boys to pick him up. I cleaned the car inside and out, put the "CH" sticker on, filled it with the requisite toys and books and packed a picnic. I had all my maps and music on hand.... and passports. We left at 10:15 (I had aimed for 10), got gas and tootled on. By chance I stopped at a lovely rest stop with picnic tables, park and nice loos. We had a tasty packed pizza lunch and set off again. I was a bit trepidacious about the Tunnel Grand Saint Bernard, as the Gothard is long and has a bit of a dangerous reputation. I also had to get us through the passport and customs checkpoints. Well, it was a doddle- we were waved through and there were few cars, except for the crappola Berne drivers that get everywhere, driving up one's bum and behavign badly. Berne drivers are for another post. The boys were very good indeed, the trafffic was easy, the views were stunning and I was feeling very proud of myself. We were wending our way through the Alp roads, getting closer to Aosta, and I was looking out for the hotel (which according to my map was very close) when Toby started doing his "I'm going to be sick" moan. He was tired, hot and the roads were twisty. I wasn't paying attention (looking for hotel in land of many, small signs) when he started barfing EVERYWHERE. Now, I had prepared for puky Tobe by putting sick bags (that Walter collects on his trips) in all the seat pockets and beside me. I tried handing one back, but he wouldn't take it and just kept going all over himself! I pulled over at the first opportunity into a restaurant parking lot and proceeded with clean up. After I was done, I started to pull out when I saw our hotel just exactly opposite us! Every time we went out after that, we got a wee reminder... bleurk.
The hotel was really nice and reasonably priced. I highly recommend :)

The boys play in the garden ouside our room. The clock tower in the background did all kinds of weird ringing: At one point in the middle of the night Walter heard it ring once, then 3, then 5 then 7 times....

There was an orchard below the hotel, where the boys picked apples and ran around. Idylic I say.

Spot the boys!!!!

The center of Aosta had lovely food stores (ofcourse), boutiques and cafes. Probably a good thing the boys were there, or we'd have come home skint.

The Piazza at the last flash of sunset.

Wee boys enjoying the insanely rich and thick chocolati. They buzzed around a bit after that.

The Roman ruins were a high point.

Naturally, religiosity was around every corner.

Forte di Bard

We were lucky enough to be there for a festival in a neighbouring town of 'Bard'. Taken from buzzle.com: "The medieval village of Bard is fairly close to the northern border of Piedmont. In addition to its historic homes perched on a mountain overlooking a gorgeous gorge you can visit the Twelfth Century Forte di Bard that held up Napoleon’s military progress for almost two weeks. He had it destroyed. The fort was reconstructed in the Nineteenth Century. " And what a fort it is. 3 funiculars, and lots of uphill walking.

There's where we's gotta get!

One the way up to the fort, we stopped at the first (of many) of food stands for a top up...

...and an interesting view. We never got to see this group perform.

One funicular, two funicular, three funicular, four.....



The boys' interest was kept occupied enough to get up without too much moaning.
Cool views down the valley towards Aosta.

Can't caption this one!

On the other side of the Grand St Bernard on the way home.

Our first "family holiday" was tops. I want to to go back for skiing... and summer... and spring!

Pisa Addendum.

The photo above was taken by Walter in Pisa. It's a dispensing machine that gives one pasta dishes instead of coke. The dishes available were carbonnara, pomodoro or SEA FOOD.... It was right beside a really nice restaurant, and eating in Italy isn't that expensive (unlike Switzerland with its 50 CHF pizzas from take-out). The Italians with Walter were horrified! Did he buy one for the sake of reporting on it? No. So you'll have to search it out syourself.

PPS- I'm not writing again till the beginning of December. Too much to do. Trying to sell stuff in a Christmas market.