Epiphany Party!

2 weeks ago we had a nice visit from Thomas, my "old" student - he is Xavier & Valerie's son (the olive tree people).  He was leaving the next day for La Reunion (Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean) where he will be for 2 1/2 years as his first post as an officer in the French Navy.  Thomas has recently graduated  from the French Naval Academy, where he was "majeur", which means he was #1 in his class.  This is a very important distinction - and he says it's partly due to his good English! :-)

 Perhaps the most amazing thing about Thomas is that when I met him he was 11 years old.  Now he is REALLY REALLY tall!

At 6 p.m. that evening we welcomed 27 people into our tiny flat to say Happy New Year to our friends whom we hadn't see since we'd left for Angers.

 

This is just a fraction of the food we had.  I kind of overdid it!  And people brought great stuff to share.

 
Meanwhile, the calmest moment of the evening was when I fed the 10 "big" kids in the kitchen.  This was the most contained they were the whole night.

 

Above: Lena, Celestin, Eva, Maelys, Louise.  

Below: Estelle, Flora, Eliott, Milo, Charlotte 

Not pictured:  baby Thomas, Basile, Chloé

 
Emmanuelle et Regis, parents to Charlotte, Maelys, & little Thomas who walked around in his pj's all night.  I did find him exploring the medecine cabinet at one point!

Thomas in action with Caroline (Milo & Chloe's mom, Jef's wife) behind...

Fransiska full of smiles since Thomas was "managing" Basile behind here.  Yannick looks on (Flora's dad - his wife Lisa & baby Rose were home with the stomach bug.)

This is most of the adults: Fransiska standing, then Yannick, Marie (Eva & Louise's mom), Manu, Regis, Jef, Arnaud (Eliott & Basile's dad) and lastly Marion (Celestin's mom) who is sitting down having a chat with little Basile who didn't want to let go of his Mommy Fransiska all night.  Wandering in the middle is baby Thomas.  Chloé was asleep in our bedroom in her stroller.  And see that closed door in the background to Léna's room?  That's where the other 10 kids were at this point, piled on Léna's bed, watching a film at 9:30 p.m.

Regis played a lot of piano for us - he is an organist for fun.

It was fun.  Tiring, but fun!