I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas!

---

Well, December 19th and 20th were filled with a lot of hope of having a white Christmas. It was beautiful to see all of that heavenly snow on the ground. The students came to school in their snowsuits and they were so excited for the snow. It reminded me of being back in St. Albert. However, by the weekend, the snow was all gone. What it left was beautiful greenary. So, we ended up with a green Christmas.

We had a great Christmas. It was nice to have my parents and my sister here for Christmas. For Christmas day, we went to church and then we went to the place where mom and dad are staying to have a chicken dinner. A turkey would have been too big, so we decided to have 2 small chickens instead. I can't believe that Christmas day has come and gone. This year seems to be flying by so far.

Today, we were able to go skiing in the Jura Mountains. We went to Les Crozets. It was a nice ski hill, with some decent runs. We are hoping to go skiing to Mont Blanc later this week. The neat thing about skiing at Les Crozets was that when we reached the top, we were able to see numerous summits in the Alps. It reminded us of one of the runs at Panorama called, "View of a Thousand Peaks." The other neat thing was that we were skiing on snow and when you looked into the valley, there was nothing but greenary. It was weird driving up to the ski hill surrounded by green and then getting to snow the higher up we went. Also, it was really windy today, with gusts up to 40 km/h. Ingie said that it was like little needles flying into her face from all of the snow swirling around at the summit.

Well, I survived my week at camp with my students. Over all it was a good week, but it was tiring. There were at least five kids that threw up during the week and it seemed that at least one of the students was awake at some point during each of the nights. I had great help from a soon to be done university student who accompanied me for the week. Sometimes during the night I felt bad for her because I sleep like a rock and she had trouble waking me up to help with all of the vomit. Also, we weren't very lucky with the weather. It rained pretty much all week. We were still able to get outside at least once a day though. However, it was difficult to drag the students outside in the rain. Maybe it's just me, but I remember that when I was young, I wanted to be outside and it was even more fun if it was raining. Maybe the students aren't made as durable these days! As time goes on, I am getting a little more Swiss with each day.

Tuesday, December 20th, my students participated in "La soirée des contes." My students were split up into four groups and they shared a story/tale with their parents who came for the evening. This was a great evening and I was proud of all of the work that my students put into their "conte."

Well, I am glad that it is the Christmas break. I feel like I deserve the rest. Merry Christmas to everyone.

Jarod

---

Photos

Balexert.
This mall was quite decorated for Christmas.

Espace Junior.
We took the kids to this play area in Palexpo. There were tons of things for them to do.

Having a baby.
Isabelle put one of her stuffed animals up her shirt to pretend that she was having a baby.

Getting married.
Isabelle informed Avery that her and Myles were getting married.

IMGP1107
The married couple walking around, holding hands.

Montreux.
On the way to the Christmas market.

Twins.
Dad and I with matching jerseys of the Turkish Soccer Team - Fenerbahce.