Daily Life in Winter, 2014

Experimenting at Muba

While the Eastern US has had one of the snowiest, longest winters in recent history, we have not had any snow in Basel (except for a small accumulation in November). Not far away, the Alps have had a decent snow season but Basel has been very mild. Aside from a few days out skiing and skating, we plan to fit all of our winter sports into one week on vacation later this month!


January and February were busy months for work, so our weekends have been low-key and what I will call "kids" choice. For example, Willem took us to the Basel Natural History museum that he visited on a field trip (he was very excited about an asteroid that he could touch!). Landon also took us on a similar repeat field trip to a special exhibit in Basel with experiments for kids. But I think our favorite choice was this past weekend, when we got to have a go at curling.

We all took an interest in curling, while watching the recent Winter Olympics. (Keep in mind we were watching English television in Switzerland; the BBC does a lot of curling coverage.) The kids especially were quite interested. So, we found out our local "Curlingzentrum" had an open house day. We all got a lesson in curling, and then even played a game against a visiting family. The boys did quite well! We all enjoyed it, and I feel we have a new respect for the skill required. We took turns sweeping, and learned a bit of the team strategy to get points. Next, the boys may be asking to have a curling birthday party!

So, although we haven't had to use our winter gear much this winter, we're making the most of our winter weekends. And still looking forward to getting some more skiing in soon.