What a wonderful year!

So many highlights.
Too many to count.
Big and small.
Near and far.
Thank you all for contributing to them.

Our Christmas evening feast

Welcoming our nomadic friends Zia Maria and LK

The aperitifs

The chicken and cheese soup

Some of the side dishes to the main course (those are chopped brussel sprouts with hazelnuts and candied bacon)

our festive table

Imagine a delicious salad here of arugula, tomatoes, red pepper, beets and toasted hazelnuts made by a helpful 10 year old.

The cheese plate

and the traditional Christmas buche


We almost skipped the cheese course but at the last minute, we managed a morsel... and of course the wine, Christmas beer (!) and fancy juices flowed throughout.

And Christmas day dawned

Fresh oj and coffee

a delicious loaf as a stand-in for Gramps' one

Lots of presents from 'Pere Noel"

including some "cool clothes" from Nana (and Gramps)

and lots of time to put all the Playmobil pieces together

Our train to the Eiffel Tower (it continues on to Versailles)

Soph & Taryn checking out Engineer Eiffel's pioneering work up close on the ascent

Paris at our feet

The splendid Trocadero complete with Christmas market and skating rink

The classic family shot

And another

Seb & Mum by the statue honouring the spirit (flame) of liberty

And then it was off 'home' to welcome our guests and whip up a 6 course meal!

'Twas la veille de Noël

We transformed our rented apartment into a festive space with some touches of home

And with sister grooming brother and brother grooming doll, we were all spruced up and 

ready to see Notre Dame de Paris at its finest (and most packed)

Paris à pied - Part 1

First two days in Paris were for exploring and so we did...

Place des Vosges

Opera Garnier 

Arc de Triomphe

Chic car boutiques on the Champs Elysees - Sophie on the motorcycle podium

Winner takes all

The beautiful Paris metro

Top of the world

Stretched to the top of the Louvre pyramid

enjoying Centre Pompidou

The inside-outside building was Sophie's top choice

 Yes, there was parental supervision

Seb checks out how the 1% lived in pre-Revolutionary Paris

The photographers - since we all have cameras now

The windows of Galeries Lafayette

Inside the shop

With its magnificent dome

Had a merry day

Enjoying our new (or nearly new) pyjamas

While it's not our big day, we still know how to make December 25th a merry one. We hope you had a great one too.

(The dude swears that he was having fun as well...)

Sauvez Pere Noel!

Our small village has a big Christmas party for local children.

Santa visits the Chateau des eveques; unfortunately, a fire breaks out

But the local firefighters turn up in force

and save the day

which amused our kids to no end.

Meanwhile, their father was busy overseeing the school's bake sale and drinking the mulled wine the Principal was selling. Seems like a great village tradition to us!

Bordeaux fun last weekend

the lads

the lasses

the ice rink in front of the historic church

Bordelais skating (tee-hee)

Sophie and her mount

Proud to say that we dropped hundreds of euros on books (almost exclusively in French) at the children's bookstore and France's oldest independent bookshop, as well as some board games at the city's 'strategy games' shop. Oh, and the children finally introduced me to 'flunch'