Twas the Night

Sunday morning our vacation began with stumbling on the Charlie Brown Christmas Special (dubbed in French, so heartwrenching). It was great nonetheless, Estelle got to see the "tree" she has from Aunt Martha, etc.
That morning we went to the Nice Christmas market, and I took Estelle up in the enormous ferris wheel - good thing since it has been pouring since Sunday afternoon. Estelle was thrilled to be up on the Ferris Wheel, just her and me.


The commotion you see in the water below is the annual Mediterranean Christmas swim, like a Penguin Plunge. The boats are for security, I guess. Can you see the people flailing around in the water?
After the Ferris wheel, I toured the market with Lena while Thomas took Estelle into the kid's park. She got to go on a huge slide:
And a trampoline:

That afternoon we treated ourself to a chocolate buche from our "old" bakery below our ex-apartment.. Yummy.Monday in the driving rain I took the girls to a little holiday tea in the afternoon. Eliott's mom snapped photos of me doing the mom thing.
The big shock of my week: After 8 1/2 years, for the first time ever, I walked by fresh cranberries! In the local grocery store! Shocking! What a delight! I stood like an idiot grinning and turning around and around in the produce section, holding them out in front of me and saying out loud in English "Oh my God! Oh my God! Cranberries!"
I made a killer chutney to go along with this:
French canadian meat pie - tourtiere! And we served mini buchettes after:
The guest was Agostino, Thomas' Italian colleage who is leaving after 2 years and going back to Italy to live/work.
Wednesday: Papy and Manou arrive from Angers via l'Auvergne, and like the Magi come bearing many gifts, including a wide assortment of barrettes, which all immediately got a test-drive.
New pillows make Estelle's bed a cozy reading corner:
Andrée organizes in Estelle's room:
Papy babysits while some baking happens today on Christmas Eve in the afternoon:

Some singing:
It's blurry, but you get the idea:

Meanwhile, back in the trenches, Santa's Little Sleep-Deprived Nursing Helper makes do with a wine bottle for a rolling pin and
We have one ruler in the house that has inches on it, it was Thomas' from middle school and it has kittens on it, but when you need to measure your dough for sticky buns, you "fait avec", which is French for "make do". Meanwhile, sisters, look at that Mary-style pursed lip!

Lastly, the greatest gift - a book of Twas the Night Before Christmas, recorded by many many members of my family with accompanying photos, thanks to my sister Joan. Incredible. Here's a clip of part of it...


Merry Christmas to everyone! It's 11:30 p.m. here and our evening is JUST beginning as we wait for Thomas to come back from the airport with Thomas and then we will eat foie gras, drink champagne, eat all kinds of stuff and open presents until the wee hours, then start again with Estelle in the a.m.! Joyeux Noel!

This little piggy....

.....went to the Nice Christmas market in the form of a gingerbread cookie.... life in a foreign country - always discovering new traditions....Meanwhile, another little piggy you want to eat!









She herself was trying to eat Estelle's Melissa & Doug fake cookie set. Better luck next year, cutie-pie.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night, it snowed in Nice! Incredible!
It has been cold the past 2 days - yesterday morning it was 39F and everyone was moaning (esp moi on my velo - brrrrrrrr).
But in the evening it was particularly nippy, and at 10:30 when I was ready for bed I heard what I thought was rain, looked out the window in the dark kitchen and thought "Why is the sky so light?"
Above - that big lit up thing you see is the city Christmas decoration which is lit up, suspended over the street and not directly outside Estelle's bedroom but off to the left a bit.

Above - streetside chaos, people were running and screaming. "It's the Apocalypse!" I screamed from our balcony. "The Jehovas were right! The end is near!" Just like with Daffy Duck, Thomas reached out with a long cane (okay his arm) and yanked me back in and to my senses. Below -the sill off our kitchen.
It was actually like hail mixed with sticky snow. I could have made several ice balls like this one below (now in the freezer as a momento). Having lived the first 22 years of my life in Vermont, I've seen it all. But clearly Nice, nor my husband, have not. It was really fun. Across the courtyard I could see all of Nice running to their windows, floor after floor of people in pyjamas crowding near panes and the bravest out on balconies. Evening revelers went screeching down the sidewalks, squealing like children, twirling and throwing snow.

Estelle, who had her last day of school yesterday, had conked out for a short nap when we got home at 5 p.m. (hasn't ever done that before!) and so coincidentally she was in bed, but awake when I realized Gotham city was under hail attack. We got her up and she was absolutely fascinated to see the snow. She just got up (8:15 a.m) and came right out to ask me to open the shutters to see if the snow was still there. It is, barely, on the roofs, etc.
Meanwhile, here's somebody who slept thru the whole thing! I should add that her first tooth popped out on Wednesday, just in time for Manou's birthday which was the 16th. She still enjoys chewing on anything, like the little book in her hand, a Xmas gift from nanny Cathy and graciously opened without authorization by older sister Estelle (hmph!).
What fun it was to have snow, even for a little while.

Elfin Magic

The 1967 Barbara Steisand Christmas Album is, quite frankly, right up there in the top 10. Say what you will about Babs, but in the late 60's, she was a Diva before anybody knew what that was (save Judy Garland). The song "Best Gift" on that record is all about the greatest present you might get any year....here's ours:
Okay enough of that saccharine. Back to my usual tone: Here's Thomas embarking on a Christmas craft with Estelle that involves building a creche out of inverted cereal boxes and dis-assembled wooden clothes pins. So far the project has spanned 2 weekends, and the fat lady hasn't sung yet, neither!
It's messy, there's glue and spray snow and bits all over, it won't stay up, but I've been loving every second of watching because it reminds me of many many years of holiday crafts from seasonal magazines under the watchful eye of all my siblings, notably Joan. Yet I still can't sew. Where did things goes wrong with sister #6? (who's kidding who, Mary and Laura can't amount to much behind the pedal either, though they'll object - p.s. Laura, filling a bobbin does NOT count).
Above: Note the beer Thomas has next to him to ease him thru the project.
Below: The rainbow pyjamas are BACK.
Here's the tree pre-decoration.
And post! If only I had the 17 boxes of my Xmas stuff currently sitting in Joan's wood bin. Dang. Note the tree is stuck in a semi-block of wood. Tree stands = WHAT? No one has heard of them over here. Seems the motto is: let your tree wither away, needles falling daily. No one minds. What? Put it in WATER? You lunatic American, they say. I just sigh. I'm thinking of dumping out my Febreeze bottle and spritzing it with water thrice daily. Ma, I know you love a watered tree, what say you?
Close your eyes and I'm SURE you can hear that Barbara Streisand song!

Not to be outdone, Her Highness wants to be just as cute.

Tonight, in the bath: Stick with it, there's a few choice bits. I was on a roll until my darn phone rang and I had to silently yell "cut" to myself. Rats!

p.s. that phone ringing, was him. Checking in. Cause despite the jokes, he is of course a great dad.