December 4, 1964

Fri. Dec. 4, 1964

Dear Mom and Dad,

Forgot to get this in the mail yesterday with all the snow. Today it was still coming thick and fast. The kids took their skates to school but it was snowing too much for them to go. The rink is an outdoor one. In the morning my neighbor Mrs. Guenter called to tell me she had an extra “sledge” in the attic if the children would like to use it. I told her we could use another one and she said “I will go quickly in the attic and fetch it.” I told her no rush but she called me in about ½ hour and said she had found it and hammered in a few loose nails and had put in over the hedge in our yard. She also said she had an extra bed we could use when my mother came to visit. In the afternoon the little girls next door didn’t have school so one of them took K and MB sledding down the long long hill across the road from us. They really enjoyed it and just came home frozen. K went right to bed and slept for a couple hrs. MB was telling me about it. She said K sat in front, then her and then Barbeli. She said “We went down zoom and then ploop, ploop, ploop up the hill. Then down again zoom – then ploop, ploop, ploop etc. She said this about four times and then she said “Then Barbeli said “Home?” and we said “Yes! cause we were freezing.”

As soon as B and Jy got home they took both sleds and went out until supper time.

I can see why Switz. has the reputation for being so beautiful. In the autumn it was so lovely here I hated to see winter come – the trees were such glorious colors and contrasted against the green fields and the distant Alps it was unbelievable. When I saw those thousands of window planters coming down I felt it was such a shame. The flowers were so lovely.

Now the snow has come! From every window of our house you could take a picture and make a beautiful Christmas card out of it. The pine covered mts. and bluffs are covered with snow – yet the sky is so blue with lovely fluffy clouds that it almost looks artificial. When the sun shines on these trees they glisten like tinsel. Even today when the snow was falling very thick they sky was bright blue. It looks so strange not to have gray skies in the snow.

In the morning when I get up the sky is still grey and the houses that have lights on on the hillside make it look just like the beautiful snow scenes Mrs. Mall used to have under her Christmas tree every year.

But I haven’t been driving in it yet! I’ll let you know how it looks tomorrow after I go grocery shopping.

Hope to hear from you soon with your preparations under way.

Love

Jim and Dina