Christmas pictures

     

                                                             The Buche!!!!!

Julia waking up Samuel on Christmas morning.  How did that stocking end up in Samuel's crib?

Samuel wearing his new tool belt.



















Samuel enjoying his new rocking horse.

Samuel and Julia after the opening of the crackers.

Samuel and the Christmas tree seconds after Samuel came downstairs.  He was quite excited.

Samuel's Christmas message

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Bonne Noel from Chatou

Samuel did not have a good Christmas eve.  We did not go to church because of his behaviour.  Twice during the day he had to be put into timeout.  The terrible twos have started early.

While we were having our traditional Christmas eve family meal of fondue Samuel was quietly sitting in his high chair, chewing on his baguette when he would suddenly throw it to the floor and begin to move his hands rapidly through the crumbs laying on the tray of his high chair, sending them to the floor also.  We don't know if he feels ignored and this is his way of grabbing attention or if he is bored and wants to move on to other things.  Looking forward to the day he can talk and tell us what he is feeling.  Of course, he will be open and honest and tell us the truth when we ask.

The rest of the day went relatively as planned.  The fuse to our electrical transformer blew as I was making the pastry for the pumpkin and mince pies.  We had to scramble to finish a few items but everything was finished on time.

Samuel and I made a late afternoon run to the city centre to pick up the turkey(7 kilos), fondue meat, baguette and buche de noel.  The buche de noel may replace pumpkin pie as my favorite christmas dessert.  It has clearly surpassed mince pie as number two. Our buche is very light and creamy, made mostly of a chocolate mousse.(A picture will be posted soon).

With Samuels cooperation we hope to go to church on Christmas morning.  The difficulty is that the American Cathedral does not offer babysitting services for either the 1700 service on Christmas eve or the 1100 service on Christmas morning.  It has been awhile since we tried to have Samuel in the sanctuary as last time we attempted it he did not have a good reaction to the organ music.

After we finished our fondue we brought Samuel upstairs and while sitting on our bed I read him Twas the night before Christmas and then Julia read him La mysterieuse nuit de noel(the french version of the same title).

Earlier in the day we had continued our tradition of watching how the grinch stole christmas and a charlie brown christmas.  We watched the grinch first and Samuel was fascinated.  He sat quietly(for the first time all day) between us on the couch with his eyes fixed on the TV screen.  This lasted for about 15 minutes until he became bored and started climbing all over us.

I also introduced Julia to the Santa tracking technology.  She did not know it was possible to know where Santa was on his day long journey.

If all goes well, pictures and videos will be posted on boxing day.

Ttfn

-Dave

It never snows in paris, part deux......

Christmas in Paris means not being able to go anywhere.  The RER A is still on strike. The French cannot drive in the snow.

I do admire our post woman.  Thursday I was thinking that the poste would not be delivered due to the weather.  Especially since our recycling was not picked up on  Wednesday and our trash had not yet been picked up on Thursday.  Much to my surprise I spied our post woman, on her bike(the traditional French method of postal delivery), delivering our mail. She was riding her bike while wrapped in a very large parka and scarves with a very small slit through which one could barely see her eyes.

Left a little after 0900 this morning to drop off Samuel at the HG and was amazed to see a line of cars(about 10 cars/trucks) slowly moving along the avenue gambetta at about 10 KPH.  A car was driving that slowly along a major access to the quai.  The road was wet from Thursday's snow and it had started snowing about 10 minutes before we left but there was absolutely no excuse to be going that slow.

On Thursday, Samuel and I drove to the city centre after he woke from his nap in the afternoon.  It had stopped snowing around 1100 and the roads were not snow packed, just wet.  As we pulled out of our street we ended up behind an old woman who was driving slowly but stopped for every curve in the road and almost stopped for every car coming from the other direction.  Very, very frustrating.  There were just enough cars coming from the other direction that we were unable to pass.

When we did return home on Thursday it was quite beautiful at the house.  If you look at the picture posted yesterday the little tree in the left of the picture is adorned with christmas lights.  When we returned on Thursday we turned on the lights on the tree and stood in the living room watching the lights twinkle in the darkening night and shining off the snow sitting on the branches of the tree.  Even Samuel stood still for a few seconds and marvelled at the sight.

It never snows in Paris.........

The view from our living room this morning.  The snow is still falling. Tried to leave at 0930 this morning to drive to the city centre to do some shopping.  Made it around the corner to the butcher.  Traffic was backed up before I could even get to the quai.  Turned around and came home.  Samuel was cute dressed in his wellington boots for the first time.  Unfortunately they are too big and it is difficult for him to walk in them.  Samuel did enjoy standing outside and feeling the sensation of the snow falling on his face.  Tremendous grin followed.

Samuel in his Christmas sweater.  Sorry for the stains but it is evidence that he is indeed now eating(sometimes) solid food.

HG Noel party

Today was the Christmas party at Samuel's HG.  We stayed for about 40 minutes.  Was able to have quick, short conversations.  Was easier to converse in French with the two helpers that speak some English.

Samuel was the only child wearing clothes that were Christmas related.  But his sweater was tasteful.  Gray with 6 penguins wearing Santa hats standing in the shape of a Christmas tree.  A few of the helpers were wearing Santa hats.

We have had difficulty finding a Christmas outfit for Samuel this year.  Julia even looked for one when she was in London and was unable to find there.

Samuel is definitely a mini-me. When we were at the HG for the party Samuel spent most of his time hovering around me being an unusually shy Samuel.  However, he did approach a very fashionably French women.  She was dressed in skin tight black jeans, knee high red boots with a skin tight grey sweater.  Samuel approached her, charmed her, put his arms in the air requesting a hug and when she put her arms out to pick him up, he ran away and hid between my legs.

Christmas in Paris(Or the French hate Father Christmas(Santa Claus))

Wednesday- The online english language support group that we belong to had arranged for a Santa Claus to be available for pictures this afternoon.  Usually pretty easy to get to.  Just a short walk from the Franklin Roosevelt metro stop on the 1 line.

Well, since last Friday the RER line that runs through Chatou has been on strike (Greve in French).  There has been limited service between 0730-0930 and 1430-1830.  Other times there are no trains running.  Of course this is only on the spur of the line that runs through Chatou, the rest of the RER A line is still running at normal.

So we are left with the following options-Take a cab, the bus or drive.  Driving would be a challenge as the only way to get there is to dive the champs d'elysse and navigate the etoile at the arc d'triomphe.  Not sure if I am ready to do that on a Wednesday afternoon and then try to find a place to park.

The malls here in France do not have Santas.  A few of the amusement/play parks that are open have a Santa but none of them are convienent to our location.  We are still exploring options but it appears that we may not have a picture with Santa and Samuel for this Christmas.