Our Thanksgiving Feast!

Our little house was bursting at the seams today and now so are we! For lunch today, we had the families of my friends, Sabine and Valerie join us for Thanksgiving, just like last year. A couple of friends of Quincy also joined us. We had a wonderful time, remembering all the wonderful people and things in our lives that we are thankful for. Everyone seemed to enjoy our very traditional meal of turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, biscuits, green beans, pumpkin pie and cranberry/apple pie. The kids were amazed and a little shocked by the marshmallows on the sweet potato casserole but all seemed to think it was a great idea! Great day!

Holiday Spirits

Ahhh.... there is nothing like Thanksgiving weekend to get you in the Holiday mood. I spent a good part of the morning today baking pies to prepare for having some friends over for our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. This year I not only made a pumpkin pie, but also tried out a new recipe for a cranberry apple pie.

Looks delicious! Calvin and Quincy had basketball games this afternoon. Calvin's team won 92 to 0! They finally just stopped keeping score. Quincy's team won 84 to 22 with Quincy scoring 41 points. Pretty banner day out on the basketball court! This afternoon, Josh and I headed down to the Exposition center on the port. They were having a big food and wine show so we felt the need to check it out.


We had a great time watching some wine judging, watching apprentice butchers show off and be judged in their techniques and of course, sampling some delicious food and wine, including some of the best kouign amann that we have had here!

We are trying to build up a bit of a wine cellar while in France and have discovered that we just can't do it one bottle at a time... So, this afternoon, we bought in bulk! Wow! That was fun. We felt so French, rolling out our dolly cart to the car, loaded with bottles of wine!

After a big dinner of roasted cajun chicken, all six of us sat in front of a roaring fire and watched "Miracle on 34th Street". We love the Holidays!

Rain, rain, rain...

Today was just cold and rainy all day long... Not pretty or exciting...
I have to laugh when I think of the Hill-Rom family that lived here before us... the couple and their one daughter lived here for 2 years and only used the French healthcare system once! We, on the other hand, are becoming experts!
Max has had a bump on the back of his arm for a couple of weeks. It has grown slightly and become painful to touch so today, we headed over the hospital for an ultrasound, to see what it is. After standing in line for almost 10 minutes, the woman at the first desk we went to told us that we were in the wrong place. She very quickly and very quietly told us how to get to the right place. She repeated it, just as quickly and quietly but Max thought he understood. We headed back out in the rain to where we thought we needed to go. Nope, wrong place. This woman told us quite clearly where she thought we needed to be but alas, she was wrong too. Finally, at the third place we tried (we were quite wet by this point), we were told exactly where we needed to go, in nice simple, French. We arrived almost 15 minutes late but thank goodness, French people just don't care that much about timing. Max's ultrasound went off without a hitch except that the radiologist told me that it was no problem if I spoke limited French. I took this to mean that he would be able to speak some English to me or at least simplify his French, but no, he apparently meant that he would speak only to Max and give him all the vital information! See how well that works next time you want to get important information from a seven-year-old! Anyway, after leaving too soon and waiting in the wrong place, we finally figured out what was expected of us and figured out that Max has a bit of an infection and some inflammation from some old insect bite or thorn stick. Unfortunately, this will probably require some minor surgery to eliminate. We are waiting now for the doctor to get this scheduled. Max is not too thrilled with the prospect. I finally got Max back to school just before lunch and then spent the remainder of my day preparing to have guests over for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Josh and Quincy are currently at his parent/teacher conferences. After forgetting their schedule and being at the wrong place at the wrong time, they are now doing just what they are supposed to be doing. Whew! Today was rough.... just when you think you are getting comfortable....

Celebrating Internet-Style

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! We were able to join in the festivities a bit with my parents, siblings and nieces and nephews via the wonderful technology of webcams and Skype. Isn't the internet great?
Today was work and school as usual. I did whip us up some corn bread and pumpkin pie to go with our salmon for tonight's dinner. We will do the whole turkey thing on Sunday when some friends can come over to join us.

In a Tube??

We woke up to frost on the ground this morning! It was cold!! 1 degree according to my car thermometer. Quincy was laughing at the kids at school who were claiming that they have never been so cold in their lives! It wasn't even below freezing and they were all "freezing". Josh and I had to head down to the mayor's office today to renew our residence permits for another year. Very quick and efficient. Can't beat that!
I made a pumpkin pie for Quincy to take to school tomorrow. His English teacher has asked him to share something with the class and to help them to understand our Thanksgiving tradition. Quincy really hopes that no one likes the pie so that there is more left for him! While buying the ingredients for the pie, I had a difficult time finding my "Eagle Brand" condensed milk that my recipe calls for. I know that I have purchased it here before so I just had to scour the shelves. I finally found it, packaged in a tube!! Can you believe that??

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! We will be thinking about you and missing you tomorrow!

A Cold Day

Today was cold just all day long. We had to pull out gloves and hats. The temperature was just above freezing when we woke up and never got above 40. It was beautiful and sunny all day however, so we can't complain too much. We can complain about the fact that just when the little boys and I stepped out on the sidewalk to walk back to school after lunch, the blue, cloudless sky dumped a cold rain on our heads for a full 2 minutes. Just long enough to get cold and soaked before the kids went back to school for the afternoon. We were not happy! I had hot chocolate in a little cafe this morning with my fellow ex-pat wife, Susie. We enjoyed catching up and commiserating about our bits of homesickness now that the Holiday season is upon us. It's hard to think that on Thursday, we won't be a part of any traditional celebrations. Our husbands and kids will all be at work and school where it will be business as usual...
After lunch, I had to get some passport pictures taken of myself to renew our residence cards for another year. Here, they require passport photos for all sorts of things.... anything where you have to sign up, like sports teams. So, passport photos are easy and readily available. They just have little automated booths in grocery stores, malls, etc. You put in 4 Euros and come out with 4 pictures which meet all passport requirements. Why is it such a pain to get a passport photo taken in the US? Why is it so expensive?
The day was gorgeous so I took the opportunity to take some pictures in the old part of town while walking to and from the cafe. They were putting up Christmas decorations and just starting to put up some big Christmas trees in various spots around town.

Oh NOOOO!!!

It's sleeting right now!! Yuck!! We did not move here to have winter kind of weather! It's supposed to actually get down to freezing tonight and with a cold, hard wind blowing right now, I think it's going to happen.
I was able to check out yet another gorgeously decorated French house today when I went for coffee at the home of another elementary school mother. Her house is very close to mine and although quite small, is just beautiful!! Next time, I will bring my camera and ask to take pictures. This woman loves to decorate so I think she would be proud to have me show it off. I am truly beginning to use my French more and more in conversation and although I make lots of mistakes, everyone seems to understand what I am saying.
After lunch, we had a few hours of just beautiful weather even though it was cold all day. So, I had to take a quick stroll down to the port, just to take a few pictures. Fantastic!


My friends were telling me today about their teenage kids' socializing this weekend. Apparently, they train them young to have proper manners and entertain properly. One 14 year old went to a dinner party with 9 of his close male and female friends. They all dressed for the occasion and had their meal at the home of one of the kids. Although, the meal wasn't closely supervised or directed, the kids did try to behave as adults would at a dinner party! Apparently, they do this every couple of months. The 15 and 16 year olds of another friend went to a rallye on Saturday. A rallye is put on once a month by a rotating group of adults. It is an alcohol free party with a dance lesson, drinks and appetizers. Again, this group of 100 kids must be invited, must dress the part and all try to behave as adults do at a get-together. Very interesting! No wonder all of the French adults have such impeccable manners!



Max borrowed my camera to follow Coco around and take pictures this morning...

Dogs, Horses and Books

Sorry for the lack of a blog last night...I'll make up for it with loads of pictures tonight... When Josh returned from Germany on Thursday evening, several of the American Hill-Rom people came back to France as well. So, last night, we took one of his American colleagues out to dinner in St-Goustan to show him a bit of our beautiful France. We had a very nice time with terrific food. Todd seemed to love the architecture that we observed in our stroll along the port after dinner.
Quincy was gone all weekend. He left on Saturday just after lunch to join a couple of friends at the beach home of one friend in Penerf. The 4 boys celebrated Rafael's birthday all weekend long with playing tag on the beach, playing baseball in the garden, playing hours of pingpong and eating lots of homemade pizza. Quincy came home exhausted but happy this evening.
This afternoon, Josh and I and the three kids, drove out (just outside of Vannes) to the horse farm of my Irish friend, Katy. We were to join her for "tea" and to explore her farm for the first time. What a wonderful afternoon we had!! Katy and her very French husband and 4 children live on an old family farm that is roughly 12 hectares or 30 acres.
They live in an old, old, old, long stone farmhouse and raise dogs and horses for breeding purposes.





We had a fantastic time tromping through the woods with the dogs and kids before checking out their horses and ponies in the fields.





Our 3 kids were all given rides on a pony and were just in Heaven.



After exploring the outdoors, we enjoyed a big Irish tea time of scones, chocolate cake and delicious tea. The kids then took off with their kids to play board games while the adults visited. After tea, Tabitha and I had a great time scouring Katy's bookshelves that were full of books written in English. We both came home with a huge collection to borrow and enjoy. All of the kids had such a good time because Katy's kids are bilingual as well. It was great to hear all 7 of them flipping back and forth between English and French.

This is my absolute favorite picture of them all. Our beautiful girl with a huge smile on her face, surrounded by the animals she loves!

Awesome Kids!

Today seemed very windy and cool but since the high was almost 60 and the low was only 45, I guess that I better not complain too much. It was windy though and I think that all of my raking the other day was for naught. While walking to school this morning, Max, Calvin and I were talking and laughing in English when a woman suddenly stopped us and said, "You must be Calvin and Maxwell...." Turns out that she is a new English teacher for their school and she had already heard all about the Americans. She then proceeded to tell me how wonderful she has heard our boys are and how amazed everyone is by their French skills and their ability to fit in. Nice to hear!

I did a little Christmas shopping today at FNAC, our new big bookstore. It was great fun because it just felt so American! Big, bright, and crowded. Max posed by the "big" section of English books that we found - unfortunately, almost none of them are for kids. Plenty for me, however!


I am posting Max and Calvin's school pictures for this year. Pretty darn cute, I would say.
Quincy and Tabitha both brought home their first trimester grades. They should both be proud! Quincy is well above the class average and Tabitha was 2nd in her class. She was only beat by a tenth of a point.
Josh made it safely home from Germany late last night and we are happy to have him home again. I was thrilled to find sliced mozzarella cheese for the first time in France so I made a big pan of true, homemade, American lasagna for dinner. Awesome!! Now, if they would just make their lasagna noodles with the curly edges, it would be perfect.
I ordered my Thanksgiving turkey today. A bit difficult as turkey is served at Christmas here rather than Thanksgiving, so 2 butchers were not sure they would be ready in time. But, I think we will be okay. I had to repeatedly state that I do not want a head or feet on the turkey! They looked at me like I was nuts and when I asked why I would want a head or feet on my turkey, they said "for presentation". That is a presentation that I can do without!

On Strike!

After taking my kids to school today, I drove across town to get my hair cut (even shorter this time!). The first thing that my beautician asked me is "Where are your children? Do they have school today?" I looked at her with a big "duh" on my face and said "I certainly hope so!" It turns out that most of the public schools were on strike today because of education cost cuts that are being made by the government. Because our kids go to private schools, their teachers did not strike. Thank goodness!! We all had more than enough together time yesterday. Anyway, on my drive back home, I ran into repeated roadblocks that the police had set up because of crowds of protesters. Very interesting to watch! Sorry that I didn't have my camera with me. This afternoon, I joined my friend Sabine for a trip to an acquaintance's house for the first of many, many home sale shows that I have been invited to so far this Christmas shopping season. This one was to sell handmade jewelry. Sabine mostly thought I should go just to see the woman's gorgeous home. It was phenomenal!! Looked like it was right out of some decorator magazine with all of the latest Parisian styles of French chic. Fantastic! Sorry, again, I didn't bring my camera nor feel like I could take pictures. The sad part was that her home was completely filled with smoke. She and several other women smoked the whole time that we were there and the poor house just seemed drenched in it. What a shame for all of those beautiful furnishings. I can honestly say, however, that this is the first smoker's home that I have been in France. I guess that's pretty good.

Autumn is Here

I spent a large portion of the day today raking leaves. In between running kids around, of course, since it's Wednesday. We don't seem to get the fall colors here that they have in the States but some trees do lose their leaves. It was nice to be outside and working in the yard. The temperature hovered around 50 as usual. I did hear that we are forecasted to have a freeze this weekend! That is a pretty unusual event in our part of France. I have now had several neighbors asked why we had our big trees cut down. No one seems any happier than we are that two, large, healthy trees were sacrificed for a neighbors' swimming pool.... Today, I just took some pictures of what I could see from the front steps of our house....