It's Christmas Eve. Inspired by Elisabeth's Christmas cookies, Lukas and I plan to bake cookies today. Lukas leafs through his Mom's cookie recipe book to find the right ones.. It's the first time I'm going to bake Christmas Cookies, so I'm excited.. but first we need some Fresh Milk and Eggs.

So off we go to Helen (Our Dairy Farmer) to get some of her yummy fresh milk. We stop by at Thomas Nann's Farm to pick up a bottle of "Rosoli" (Walnut Liquor) to bring her as a "Thank You" Christmas Gift. Thomas loves to talk and we end up spending over an hour with him... hearing about this or that. I usually have a hard time understanding his Swiss-German dialect. Finally, we wave him good-bye and wish him "Frohliche Weihnachten" and head towards Helen's Farm.

Since we have cookies to bake at home, i say to myself that we will just pick up the milk and leave. Usually we chat a bit with her too. Unlike people in US, folks here in this Swiss village have Time  - a chance encounter on the road is usually 30 mins or more. At first, i would be a bit impatient, but slowly I've learnt to let go & just be - even if i don't understand the conversation completely. 

We're greeted by Helen, as we park our car. "It's not going to be quick" I say to myself.. my thoughts more with the cookies we need to bake. "Would you like to see a surprise?" She asks us and opens the door to a smaller Farm room.. and inside two cute little baby calves - with large innocent eyes are laying all cuddled up on the hay.. One Brown and the other White. Chocolate and Milk.. "Oh, i need to hug them, may I?" I ask Helen. She gives me the go ahead and i approach them gently, sitting in front of them.. looking into their eyes, blessing them and wishing them a good life. I slowly reach out to touch them.. They're Fluffy and Cuddly.. "They were born this morning, they're just about 4 hours old" adds Helen. Wow.. how incredible!! And slowly they start to stand up, wiggling a bit on the hind legs and then like magic they're able to straighten up & walk. It takes us humans 8 months to do the same and we consider ourselves Strong??

The white one comes up to me and starts to nuzzle... She's a Heifer (Girl Calf). She's tugging at my Heart..  I stroke her back and forget all about the cookies we need to bake...  She will stay on Helen's Farm, so they already have her ear tagged with a unique Id-number. The Brown is a Bull Calf and unfortunately will be given away 

I ask her why the calves are kept away from the Mama Cow? Helen explains that they need do start weaning the calves. The mama cows do get to lick their calves when they're born but after that the Family takes care of the calves. Keeping them away protects the calves from the bugs in the Cow-dung and also saves them from being trampled over by other cows. The calves get their Mama's Colostrum (thick and sticky milk full of antibodies) within 6 hours of being born... 

The slightly older calves (a week old) look at us from behind their fence.. It's hard to say goodbye to 4 pairs of innocent eyes... but what to do -- One needs to bake the goodies One intends to eat ..