Vermont Birthdays, New Hampshire Darkness

Today my niece and goddaughter Heather Renee turns 2 up in the white winterwonderland of Vermont. It is also my nephew Jacob's 11th birthday, also buried under the snow in VT. A big happy day to both of them!
Here's an photo of Heather this summer. Quite a contrast to how things look at the moment up there in Santaland. Of course I have no photos of Jacob because who can catch an 11 year old baseball fanatic boy long enough to take his photo?

Meanwhile, my mother enters Day 7 of No electricity in southern New Hampshire where she resides chez ma sister and brother-in-law. Day 7. Now that is a long time in cold conditions. The ice storm that hit last week on Thursday night is one of the longest power outages in modern history.
They have a generator, and a wood stove in their living room, so they certainly have it better than most. Their phone line is connected to their cable, but between on again off again cell phones and my brother-in-laws work phone line that is still going, they certainly are able to get by. 2 of their daughters have just arrived home for the holidays so things are getting festive despite the lack of juice.
Still, I do think of the eldery living alone, those people with young children, or a newborn baby, and wonder how they are managing.
Makes the constant rain we have had here lately in Nice seem not so awful!
Here are some shots from Vermont and New Hampshire after the ice storm hit last week:


And my personal favorite, this photo of some people who don't mind the situation one bit:

We Need a Little Christmas!

Right this very minute!
Haven't posted in a while as we've been out for the count - Estelle has a bronchial virus, when then moved into her intestines and produced lots of interesting vomiting episodes. I had the pleasure of undergoing an amnioscentis which produced perfects results. Did I mention yet I'm expecting?
Thomas had the good fortune of waiting on me hand and foot after the amnio for 3 days and cleaning up after poor Estelle's troubled tummy. His parents also helped up by standing in for 6 days. I was too laid up in bed to take any photos and it appears Thomas didn't either - so we have no visual documentation of their visit! Sorry...
But now life is back to normal, and here's Estelle getting into the Christmas spirit eating and making Christmas sugar cookies:



On Friday we enjoyed a Christmas teatime with buddies Thomas and Eliott. Estelle looks like a gypsy because her tights got wet so we put on pink sweatpants under her skirt
Enjoying our little tree

A video of some kind of dance she was doing: wait until the Christmas song in th background of this blog entry finished to press play on the videos so you can hear what is happening in the video....

Singing a French children's Christmas song:

Sunday after making cookies we went to another Christmas gathering = an "advent" party, at Helene and Sylvain's place. Estelle had 3 playmates, but she was by far the oldest child there.
Here she is trying to blow out the candles (for the 7th time)
Helene, our host, graciously accommodates Estelle's candle obsession
Special friend to Estelle number one that afternoon: Eloise.

More soon!

Thanksgiving

No that's not a pumpkin pie. It's a tourtiere, a Quebecois meat pie. I made this a few weeks ago when we had out friends Guillaume and Caroline for the weekend. They flew down from Paris for a visit.
Caroline won points by playing with the sticker book, also appreciated by Guillaume.

Guillaume teaches Estelle the finer points of rugby. Readers who attended our French wedding may recognize Guillaume as one of Thomas' "temoins" - or witnesses - the French equivalent of a best man.
The next weekend it was Thanksgiving. Since there is no Thanksgiving over here, Americans have to make it happen themselves. Last Saturday we, along with about 30 other people, congregated chez Uncle Craig and Uncle Doug for a fabulous feast. Here's Craig hard at work deciding what goes where.....
Doug, official taste-tester, savouring a moment.

After the meal, there was a nod to the French culture with a cheese plate.
Just a few of the items on the dessert table: my pumpkin cookies.
And my pumpkin pie - yes, Mom, I did make that crust from scratch!
Here's Doug explaining the rules of the Yankee Swap/Secret Santa game, part of the tradition at Thanksgiving at their house.

Here are some of the gifts waiting to make their entrance into the game. We came away with a "Mamma Mia" DVD and some great a set of stacking cups - good prizes. Our gifts were big hits - especially the French Rugby Team calendar - highly coveted by all the women and most of the men in this crowd. Thomas adds he too respects it, as an athlete.

In any event, a nice Thanksgiving. Estelle was perfectly well-behaved. As we were!
Now we are enjoying a visit from Thomas' parents....more photos on that later this wkend!