top this charlie brown!

Well, our tree was more pauperly than I would have actually liked, (and we had a fire scare while attempting to pop popcorn to string... that's another story) but a combination of factors made it the one that worked for us, and in the end, it really doesn't matter relative to simply wonderful fact of being together as a family for Christmas this year. Basically the best christmas present ever was the miraculous fact that Ryan's travel plans went exactly according to schedule so that he was in fact here, at our apartment in La Rochelle, in time to walk around the corner and wait for Julian and Miette at each of their schools to greet them as they finished their last day of school before christmas break. Ryan missed the terrible weather that blocked air travel by one day, made it to Paris on time to catch his train here, and from the station here caught a cab bringing him to the correct destination in la rochelle completely on his own. I met him downstairs in the dentist office where I had left the keys to our place 2 minutes after he arrived! I had my last afternoon of work that day and didn't think I'd be able to meet him before I got off (especially because I missed a day the week before when Julian was sick) but it turned out that I was done early because of holiday celebrations and could run home to check and see if he'd arrived in time. So in fact we got to walk together to pick up the kids. This was a big deal to me because otherwise he wouldn't get to see the whole school thing- the other parents and kids, the classrooms, their teachers, Julian's first school ever! Miette got to take him in and give him a little classroom tour.

So far our vacation has been lots of slow mornings at home with various little outings of different sorts each afternoon. Of course, we had to show him our beloved Ludotheque the day after he arrived before it closed it's doors for the holiday break, and another brief stop at the Mediatheque. Then we had dinner together here with our friend Stephanie before she left town to do some vacation traveling in the UK. The next couple days we walked around town to check out the Christmas village at Place de Verdun, to see the main market, do a few last minute errands and window shopping.

Christmas day we stayed in and played with new toys and started on some of the building/project gifts that Ryan, urhmm, i mean Santa, brought. We ate a hybrid pancake-crepe thing for breakfast with nutella and bananas, later had peppermint hot chocolate and cookies (store-bought:( we'd already finished the ones mom sent!) and for our Christmas dinner we bought sausages for the boys and I made mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and broccoli. Unfortunately either the food or a bug made Ryan sick in the night and he had to take it easy the next day- he stayed home and napped it off and I took the kids to see a french film called "Le Renard et l'Enfant".

Yesterday we visited la Tour de St. Nicolas and la Tour de la Lanterne which were absolutely amazing. These are the towers one sees in every postcard of La Rochelle and they are situated on the port which borders the center of town. The Tour de St. Nicolas was built in the 14th century and has stone walls 3-5 meters thick. It feels labyrinthine. There are 2 spiral staircases which are intertwined like DNA (without the ladder rungs). You can go out on the top and see the entire city and the sea from above, and you can actually feel what it might have been like back in the day when they had to keep the city safe by guarding the harbor from these towers. I'll take it over the Sears Tower any day. I could go on and on, I didn't really want to leave. The other tower is cool (but not as cool as St. Nicolas) and it's interesting feature is "grafitti" carved into the stone walls from the many prisoners it held over the years- their names and the dates they were held captive, a couple had etched tally marks, there were various different carvings of large sailing vessels, and there was even a hand carved chessboard in the floor. The tower walk there was practically intolerable for me- The wall is about waist high, the walkway is extremely narrow and there is nothing between you and the sea or ground far far below. Ryan walked around with Miette but I wouldn't let Julian do it, just thinking about it makes my stomach lurch. I got the view but quickly returned back down with Jules leaving Ryan and Miette to enjoy the view.

Today we planned on doing a self-guided bike tour of the city (you can borrow bikes free for 2 hours at Place de Verdun) but as soon as we headed out we realized that it was too chilly to really enjoy being on bikes for long so we switched plans and went to the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle instead with a coffee afterwards at the gorgeous Café de la Paix nearby and then browsed the Friday afternoon market that sets up by Place de Verdun. We bought some tartes salées (one salmon and one tomato-goat cheese), a little apple cake, spicy olives, pickled garlic, and wine to bring home for dinner.

I'd also like to mention that I finished a mystery novel already and am ready to start (and finish) a second, which has been something I've not been able to do since I've been here- not for lack of time but because I get too scared to read them when I'm here alone!

NOTE: As Ryan is reading and editing over my shoulder, commenting on my excessive run-on sentences and lack of proper use of semicolons and commas, I would like to state for the record that I DON'T CARE! and I have no pretensions of being a great writer!!!!!! This is a purely informative blog!

Did I mention its freezing here?

Yes, it is currently colder than I though possible for this supposedly-insulated-from-extreme-temperatures-by-gulf-stream-waters seaside town. There is frost on the grass and cars and when biking, the wind absolutely cuts like a blade. But no snow still! I won't complain about the cold, it makes it feel like Christmas. Rain and 55 degree weather just doesn't fit the bill.

I am leaving momentarily to do "english" in Julian's classroom. This will consist of singing a couple songs and doing little fingerplays. I may sing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" but it's kind of boring and doesn't have any motions to go with it. 12 days of Christmas is cool with the numbers and animals etc., but too complicated for 4 year old non-english speakers. Anyway, I dressed Jules in his american flag sweater that Grandma Debby sent so he would be our little cultural mascot for the day! (Plus, it's warm!)

Our tree is up and already shedding. Miette has already started putting random crap on it to decorate- a habit which I'll have to nip in the bud before we have a franken-tree. We got packages from Grandma and Grandpa Brown and Aunt Rhonda with some ornaments and other christmas doodads and the little angel from Rhonda is already perched on top!

feeling better

Jules is finally better but just barely. Now the poor kid is starving after 3 days of limited food and everything that went in going right back out. We had a nice weekend regardless. I think it forced me to rest up a bit as well which I needed so I can be in good form for the last week before Christmas. There's so much going on in the next 5 days! Meetings, dinners, school christmas shows, and I even still have some stupid french bureaucratic ends to tie up to top it all off. Christmas will be a welcome calm.

Little people funnies: Julian's new favorite phrase is "freak out". As in, "Miette would be really freaked out if I..". (fill in the the blanks). I wish I could remember the multitude of ways he's used it lately but it's been in every other conversation we've had lately. Pretty funny coming from the mouth of a not-quite-four-year-old. Also he has been speaking little tidbits of french more and more often. Usually almost secretly though, to himself while playing I'll hear him say- "pas comme ça, pas comme ça". And a couple times when I've "caught" him, he acts kind of mad that I've heard him! We got a "Schtroumpfs" DVD (the Smurfs in french) from the Mediatheque and while he was sick watching it, he made a comment about the smurf who gives trick presents that explode and referred to it as a "cadeau", choosing to use the french rather than the english in his description!

AAAAAH! Christmas is almost here...

Why, even after countless discussions about gifts and travel and this and that does it always sneak up on me?? I am so NOT on the ball this year so just a word of warning that New Years cards may be in order this year.... So far, we have only some paper snowflakes on our window and little clay-and-paper scenes of trees, santa, and presents that Miette made for decorations. I think we will buy a very small charlie brown tree tomorrow on our limited budget! I was going to scramble around town this morning to try to get some things to send off to the States in time but my plan was foiled by Julian waking up to vomit at 5:55 AM. Oh joy! So I called off work, kept him home from school and we played it cool at the homestead today. No more vomiting but the illness migrated out the other direction so it was good he was home. He also took a 2 1/2 hour nap and was asleep again at 9 PM. Poor guy.

Miette is thrilled that I am coming tomorrow morning to see the play her class will be performing for the parents. She has the role of the duck with whom the story begins. It is called "SILENCE!!" and involves many barnyard animals. I will write a detailed report afterwards. I will also try to videotape it and post it if possible, or at least her part.

I am posting an image of the snowflakes and their shadows through the curtain. Stephanie, our Australian friend, had never made a paper snowflake before- it doesn't snow in Australia. In fact, it's hot for Christmas and they go to the beach! So we taught her our cold weather craft and she was delighted.

All of the english assistants have been being observed while teaching over the past few weeks by the language administration people. We all know them and they are very wonderful people so it isn't a worrisome thing, mostly it's just to give us feedback and help us deal with problems we may have run into etc. So for my lesson the teacher wanted to do something about Christmas. For whatever reason, I figured it would be cool to introduce shapes with a little Christmas vocabulary and made paper cut-outs of a tree, ornaments, star, presents, and snowman (big / small, all different shapes, different colors) and magically transformed the separate shapes into the Christmas scene with the help of the kids. Anyway, my observer thought it was wonderful and wrote it up into a whole lesson plan with accompanying worksheet and has already taught it herself to other classes! So,just a little pat on my own back!

Next week we have a dinner with all the people in the language office, their families and all of us, the assistants. We are supposed to bring a typical regional specialty dish to share. Any suggestions? Skyline chili? Deep dish pizza? nah, maybe greek spaghetti! Seriously, send me your ideas, quickly, it's on Tuesday! I have also been invited to share pre-Christmas dinners with the teachers at La Genette (Miette's school) and another of the schools in which I work. The week is absolutely going to fly by.

I hope that everyone else is more on the ball than me with their holiday prep! Best wishes for these last days of scrambling.

Le weekend

No new pictures to add this week- it's been raining non-stop which isn't so conducive to snapping photos left and right! But we've been busy and had a very full weekend so the rain hasn't stopped us from getting around (we've just gotten quite wet in the process). The weather has been mild, temperatures during the day in the mid to upper 50s and if it weren't for the Christmas decorations everywhere I think I'd forget that it is December. Unfortunately some heavy winds blew away the first beautiful sky we had this morning and I think slightly cooler weather is here at least momentarily. La Rochelle apparently has lots of wind in the winter that can be quite fierce. Funny huh, moving from one famously windy city to another!

Miette had a birthday party yesterday afternoon which was great fun for her- face-painting, treasure hunting, bead-making, and the usual festivities. We had to get there in the rain which was funny- we took a bus partway and then since the other bus that would have brought us right to the girl's house wasn't leaving for 20 minutes that we'd get there just as soon if we walked. But since Julian was with us and can be a wuss about walking if he decides he doesn't want to anymore (or worse, since all the stores and buildings are decorated he wants to stop and tell me about each thing he sees and it takes us 15 minutes just to cross the street). So I decided to borrow a free bike that from the public bike "depot" located at Place de Verdun. This is the central plaza where all the buses arrive at the end of their routes. Anyone can check out a bike for 2 hours free of charge and they have them with baskets and child seats as well. So I checked out the one with a kid seat on back, strapped Julian in and walked him in the bike next to Miette to the party. After we dropped off Mimi at the party I biked with Jules to the Ludotheque and got drenched on our way there so first we had a coffee and hot chocolate in the little cafe upstairs to warm up before heading in to play. It was nice to have this little time together there to play and then we left, biked around for fun because the rain had stopped and he fell asleep in the seat! Then we took the bus to get Miette and got another bus back home. All of this led to me to realize that though it is easy to get around in La Rochelle, I need to get a good raincoat so we can also circulate in all kinds of weather!!! (Maybe that should be the one and only item on my Christmas list, and maybe a matching rain hat! Or an excuse to finally buy myself the beautiful one that I've coveted from Boden!)

After the party, I had an evening out to look forward to. I got a new babysitter, a 17 year old girl named Felixe who is a friend of the daughter of my landlord. She was super nice and the kids took to her immediately - I think she's a keeper! I headed out to see a concert (only my 3rd evening out alone since we've been here) and met a group of 4 friends to see KerenAnn at La Coursive, a concert venue/cultural space on the port in the center of town. As soon as I saw a poster saying she was coming, I made up my mind to go because I love her music- which I discovered from Mom who gave me one of her CDs for my birthday. She sings in french and english and I think for that is well-known here. Her performance was amazing. She did 2 encores and one of those included a funny story about her traveling in the States on a tour heading to play next in Tennessee. She basically ended the story by saying that we all had a little Tennessee in us and then played the Tennessee Waltz. This was especially funny for me to be here in France hearing someone tell a story in french about the U.S. and then play the song that I danced to at my wedding! After the concert we all got a quick bite to eat (I finally found somewhere that sells falafel) and we found an amazingly cool funky little bar where we hung out for a couple more hours. It was great to get out, hear amazing music and taste the night-life of La Rochelle.

Today we were invited to the home of a guy and his daughter who we had met at the park a few weeks ago. He has another friend with a son of a similar age and all of our kids were having a blast together at the park so we made plans to go to this rope-climbing place together. When the day came to go there, we found out that the place was closed for the season. So we finally got together today to make sushi with the kids at their house. The kids got along very well again, had fun making sushi, playing in their backyard and watching movies. We spent all day there, arriving home just for dinner, phone call to daddy, shower and bedtime.

fog, rain, and christmas lights

The weather has been very mild but also extremely wet lately. The Christmas lights and decorations are up around town and we did a little window shopping downtown this weekend, coming home as the night fell. The pictures are of Julian on the bus de mer, the church before the sunrise on a foggy morning last week, the Hotel de Ville with kids out front, and Mimi one evening surrounded by the night-lights.

We rearranged furniture today. It sort of hit me that though we're not staying here forever, I can still claim some ownership over the space and there were some things that just needed to be shifted. I highly recommend this activity for anyone feeling the need to re-energize and get out of a rut! Though we didn't make huge changes, I feel like we live in a new place! Try it, it works!

We also started the advent calendar yesterday which for us is more of a countdown to daddy than to Christmas.... Only 19 days to go!