Belated Yuletide

Happy New Year - but first......
Catching up with some Christmas photos.... Our advent wreath, and just below it you see a French hunting magazine, "Chasseur Francais", with a photo of Gerard, the husband of Thomas' godmother Sylvette (Guy's cousin). He is a big hunter and somehow got on the cover of this national magazine! Really cool!

Christmas Eve: All the presents under the tree next to each person's pair of shoes (French tradition).
Christmas morning: Estelle comes out of her room and sees Santa's loot:
A little elf enjoys Tata Agnés.
Gifts from America from Virginie our French friend in Wisconsin - Dr. Seuss! Yeah! Also good for chewing, esp when you have 2 new teeth.
Gastronomic aside: some of the goodies we've been eating lately. With the exception of the buchettes in the 1st photo, everything else was made by yours truly and Estelle.
Christmas sugar cookies with a little extra baking soda - whoops! but no one noticed!
...Half of a pan of cinnamon sticky buns...whoah baby, they were good, and a miracle, given I was substituting left and right and had no thermometer to test for the yeast...
---chocolate truffles rolled in cocoa or coconut, started by Agnés and finished by us:
Aunt Becky's (my aunt Becky) Black Bottom cupcakes...I made 70! Cheesecake and chocolate chips inside chocoloate cupcakes. What else!
Back to Christmas morning: Estelle opens her new Playmobile house and its many accessories...
Santa's Helper:
Christmas Day was sunny, warm and absolutely beautiful. Terraces were filled with people eating oysters in tee-shirts. We headed out for a run on Estelle's new favorite thing, the trampoline.
I think all that foie gras was catching up with me.
Palm trees looking good on this Parisian..

This years theme at the market was "Russian Christmas", so here are some big dolls with aunt and niece sandwiched in....
At the market we stumbled on candy canes, which do not exist anywhere over here except at a fair or market. I was delighted as was Estelle, who of course sees them in all her English holiday books but never had seen a real one. She is still savouring it a week later!
At 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Day, Estelle remembered she had something called a "stocking" (not at all done over here) and was surprised to find gifts inside.
Meanwhile I had had the bright idea to give Agnes a debutante knitting kit for a scarf - this turned out to be the bane of her existence for two days - dropping stitches, starting over, etc.
What you see them putting together here is another French Christmas edible tradition: walnuts, prunes, or dried apricots stuffed with marzipan. I'm not a fan of this almond paste stuff so I didn't partake but this is a standard in most homes, often also using dates.
Meanwhile, the knitting madness continues while Papa Thomas get a much needed nap:
Papy enjoys some one-on-one time with Léna
Remember I mentioned no tree stands? I tried to improvise one with this roasting pan (purchased specially for) but even though the water level descended, it was just that block getting wet, not the tree itself. Thus you can see the resulting needle nightmare:
What the top of the tree looked like 2 days after Christmas - bare naked:
In closing, here's our little cherub who has totally mastered sitting up, likes to chuckle and shows off her dimple and two teeth as often as you like:
She's wearing hand-made overalls that were a gift from Eliott's mom Fransiska.
On the 28th Léna had her 8 month checkup - almost 23.5 pounds (no that is NOT a typo) and 29.5 inches. Off the charts. Promise we are not forcefeeding! Still nursing for pete's sake!
Sisterly love.
A lovely few days around Christmas, despite a raging stomach bug that hit both Agnes and Andrée and thus merited TWO housecalls from doctors with black bags and shots. All very Little House and Dr. Baker. Love it.
VIDEO time - 2 very short ones:
First film: Chuckle a little, knit a little, pick a little, talk a little.......
And second short: stocking stuffers - straws and music on Christmas night. One week later, she has amazingly improved her harmonica skills. To be continued...

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.