Into the New Year

I was shocked to see I had not posted in over a month!  Sorry, loyal fans.

 Christmas seems long ago and far away.  But we had many wonderful moments.  One day we helped out or friends/neighbors with their daughters after school, Charlotte (on her way to dance) & Romane.  They loved our Xmas cookies.

 Another day, we got to have Louise come and "play" for an hour on a Wednesday!

 In December, we also celebrated our friend Fransiska's 39th bday with a pumpkin cheesecake by moi-meme.

 Another bday celebration for my friend Rosa with Dorine & Melanie.  This is my "Sex & the City" quarter of friends. ( I am supposedly Charlotte, just because I go to church!)

 Estelle & Léna had their Christmas dance show on Dec 20th.

 Léna is in there somewhere, I think that's her hidden on the left.  Or maybe with her back to the camera!

 Estelle doing hip hop wearing an old sheet:

 Léna during the finale - poor thing, she was all pooped out.

 Christmas goodies delivery time for our neighbors the day before we flew:

 This incredible English Christmas cake was made by my friend Abbie - she had started it in SEPTEMBER.  I kid you not.

 On Christmas morning, Santa gave me a Singer sewing maching, courtesy of my mother-in-law!  Yeah!

 Our beautifully set table for Christmas dinner.

 Christmas dessert with the Saulnier family - here is Guy's amazing Buche de Noel!

 And here is the very highbrow bakery one.  This was delicious too!

 There was a lot going on in this buche.  Pistachio and currant jelly and who knows what else!

 Another day, we had a lovely "gouter" with family friends Celine & her 3 children.

 Tata Agnes was SUCH fun for these 2 little girls in Angers.  Every day was fun & games!

 We had mostly rain during our 9 days in Angers, but one or two days were lovely.  Great day for a bikeride by the Maine river.  Léna really perfect riding with no training wheels.  She was so proud!

 Angers cathedral in the background.

 Isn't my husband the handsomest man alive?  Pretty hot 36 year old if I do say so meself.

 Another day we went to the Natural History Museum in Angers for fable-telling and then a ride on the Merry Go Round - top deck!

 New Year's Eve in Angers - the night before we left.  Here we are with neighbors/family friends the Rigollets/Moreaus.  Léna and Zellie taking a little break.

 Zellie and Hadrien flank the girls to watch The Rescuers while the grown-ups ate and ate and ate!

 Did I mention we ate?

We rang in the New Year and then walked across the cul-de-sac to drop into bed and fly home (Singer machine in its own suitcase!) the next day to Nice.  It was a great trip, thanks to Papy & Manou & Tata Agnes!

Thanksgiving and Advent

Mermaid dress and homemade cape from Aunt Martha are always fun to wear on the weekend! 

 

Playing all the time makes you tired:

 Oboe Mermaid:

 Meanwhile:

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal with my friend Leslie and her family.  Leslie is American from NYC and her husband is English.  It was a great time. 

This is why I love Leslie:  if your Menora is in storage, make one out of a banana and aluminum foil.  Brilliant.

 

I was amazed that Leslie knew by heart all the Hebrew/Yiddish things to say, and Zelda repeated them with what sounded like perfect pronunciation.  Sounded beautiful.

The next day:  time to paint.

And more oboe!

Christmas package comes from Joanie.  After my initial shock at the price of the postage, we finally opened it up!

Yes those are 4 Koffee Kup Krullers and yes I have eaten them all - gave one bite to Thomas.  Everyone agreed in the family that the most prudent thing to do was to let Mommy have ALL of them.  For the good of the family.

This year's Hallmark recorded book from the family:  Rudolph!

We love it!  Thanks to all!

Gretchen's Artwork

Does everyone know that our cousin Gretchen Alexander is a very talented artist?  Check out her blog post about her artwork showing locally.
Millstone Artworks: Show at Richmond Family Medicine

Old Photos from Phone

Finally got around to emptying out the photos on my phone.

 This was the last days of Léna's 1st year at school, in June.

 This was her great teacher, Cathy.

 This summer, the girls went to Paulette's for their haircut!

 They spent one day (after I was robbed) swimming with Maxence and Berenice in Cannes.

 ...and their little sister, Sixtine.

 We hikes in some gorges with friends.

 We say a street theatre festival.

 Thomas and I went to London.

 Saw the Globe theatre.

 And attended Simon's wedding, with our friend Amy (who has since had a baby girl).

 Beach time.

 Visits to Fransiska and Basile.

 A day with Chantal.

 Léna's coathook at school.

 Patrimony Day - a visit to a chapel that is normally closed.

 An art exhibit.

 Estelle got a magician set from her godfather, Francois.

 The oboe adventure began in September.

 I watched Eliza's wedding on Skype.

 More days at the beach.

 Bike riding around the city.

 Léna devours coleslaw.

 My students in Monaco try to put together a puzzle of the 50 states.

 The new big huge park that his disrupted the center of the city for 3 years finally opened at the end of October.  It is incredible.  And HUGE.

 This was one of the ceremonies for its opening.

 We gathered olives as we do each year.

 On Veteran's Day (WWI = Armistice here), we had a great visit from Claudine & Roland, from Angers.  We saw a neat exhibit.

 How school was during WWI.

 Look at the weather on November 11th!

 Nap time.

 Ken finally has some clothes from Estelle's fake birthday party.

 December 1st - the advent calendar's begin.

That's all, folks!