Caméra

My brand new caméra is giving me headaches. This weekend I had planned to take several pictures of the grand Château de Fontainebleau, but my caméra only allowed this very blurry photo. Luckily we live only 15 minutes away from the Château so it will be easy to return and document our favorite rooms and gardens.

The day after we purchased our caméra we accidentally dropped it and it has never been the same. Alas, the past three months of our journey here have been photoed in blurry form. Lucky for us my sister Valene is coming tomorrow for a visit. We sent her on an errand to purchase another caméra...hope the new one works.

Thanksgiving

We all know and love the Thanksgiving story of the Pilgrims and the Indians. This however is another story. It is the story of a bunch of crazy Americans trying to make a "traditional" meal in a foreign land. You might think that it would be easy to recreate a meal in France since after all the French are known for their cuisine...well, they are known for THEIR cuisine. OURS took several chefs, stores and adaptations to be complete. The first problem was the teeny tiny cooking facilities. Our oven is about the size of a toaster and it only has one shelf. Our microwave is even that much smaller. Voila! We found a way to adapt.

Two weeks ago Taylor and I ventured down to our local marche on Saturday morning to talk with the Rôtissoire (man who sells rotisserie meats). We ordered four turkeys. He said they were small and would be difficult to find, but he would check around. The next Saturday we checked in and everything was in order. Thanksgiving day Taylor drove 30 minutes to a marche where the Rôtissoire was working so he could pick up the turkeys. Voila! And you thought it was a project to carve ONE turkey! Try four!

It was a hungry crowd for dinner and a good thing too.







Each chef spend lots of time and effort. Tifiny and Janene (Tif's mom) hand whipped cream-no electric mixer, sent Ralph (Tif's dad) on a wild goose hunt for sweet potatoes-the first ones he found were the size of an egg, made banana cream pie in square casserole dishes (no pie tins) and made a giant bowl of mashed potatoes & gravy. Traci Thomas made pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin that she bought at the British bookstore. The small can of Libbys pumpkin was a whopping 6Euros a can! Lisa Frank supplied baguettes-none of us were crazy enough to make homemade rolls! Hillary brought 5 little tiny jars of cranberry sauce that she miraculously found in the "International Section" of the grocery store. I tried to create Grammie Randall's stuffing using three different varieties of "French bread". I went to the market to buy sage and came home with "Estragen". When I told Taylor all I could find was estragen he said we all might feel emotional after the meal! I looked up estragen in the dictionary to find I had purchased tarragon. Tif was brave enough to call her French neighbor who had fresh sage - thank goodness! We fed 22 people: 11 adults and 15 children. We had all the "fixins" plus a few French specialties like foi grass, pate and chocolate mousse cake.


There were three big tables set up. This little group of gobblers had the most fun running around.










Everyone had a friend to share the evening with. Spencer's friend Arthur came. He is French, but lived in the US several years ago and has good memories of American Thanksgiving. We were glad he could join us. After dinner the kids had a big game of bingo complete with prizes. We stuffed ourselves with dessert and ended the evening satisfied to say the least.





No left-overs for us. We pretty much cleaned up on the meal & it was delicious! Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Gratitude

Thanksgiving day is almost over. It's 11pm and as I sit here reflecting on the day my heart is brimming full with "gratitude". We had a regular school day and work life, but this evening was special. Tonight our house was filled with traditional food (I'll write all about that tomorrow), family and friends. A new friend from church put the "icing on the cake" for my Thanksgiving. Her name is Magali and she is a very dedicated wife and mother. She grew up in New Caledonia and has said that the US army left a great influence there since WWII. She has always wanted to live in Utah which is where I am from so she is excited to be friends. Today she delivered this beautiful homemade chocolate cake with a letter that said, "I pray that you and your family will enjoy your life in France and that it will be a good experience. Here is a French desert for your Thanksgiving." This woman who home-schools her four children took time out of her very busy life to bake and deliver a cake for my family Thanksgiving celebration. How could I not enjoy my life in France?! I have been blessed beyond measure and I'm having the most incredible experience associating with some of the most earnest and sincere people in the world.

Chaton (Kitten)

We had an unexpected visitor Saturday night. There was the most pitiful crying coming from the front porch. I opened the door to find a little gray chaton. Of course the kids were giddy with excitement. "He needs a home!" "This little chaton has picked our family!" Well, we fed him some cheese & I made him a bed with a box and an old towel and now I believe this little chaton will live permanently on our porch.

We left three pets behind when we moved to France: A beta fish, a turtle and a beautiful lazy yellow lab. I've been partial to the lab. I'm a dog girl. However, I must admit that it's fun to have a pet and the kids are in heaven with this little fur ball. We do have "House Rules"...the cat is NOT allowed in the house! Whenever someone is having a bad moment I can pretty much count on them sitting on the porch playing with the chaton.

There are tons of wild cats in France. When we first arrived Lilly looked out our back window & noticed a cat with a really beautiful coat of fur. I told her he was wild, but that she could name him and watch him. She didn't hesitate, "I'm going to name him George Washington!" We laughed and laughed about a French cat named George Washington, but his name has stuck. The other wild cats were given names like Van Gough, Henri, etc. Funny thing is George Washington seems to be the "General Commander". The other cats stay out of his way. All cats except this new chaton (whom we have named Felix). A couple of hours after Felix made his debut George Washington came prowling in the front. There was a bit of a "cat fight". We scolded George and he hasn't been seen since!

Apiculter (Beekeeper)

Our village of Bourrone Marlotte has a butcher a baker and a candlestick maker. Well, actually he's an "apiculter" who makes pretty cool beezewax candles. We live four doors up from the Miel (honey) store and factory. They had an open house that we attended. It was really fun & informative.







We got to see all kinds of hives (old and new). I always feel a bit lazy after watching bees work.










The best part of the tour was tasting honey. They have honey made from soooo many different flowers. Flowers from the forest, suflowers, etc. Every Saturday the apiculter comes to the market and sells the different varieties. The kids especially love the honey candy. There is citrus, eucalyptus, mandarin & mint to name but a few.



Come visit us and we'll take you to the honey store for a sweet treat!

Grève (Strike)

Tomorrow morning marks the beginning of the French Grève. All public employees are scheduled to strike against the new government proposal for retirement age limits to be increased beyond age 55. School teachers are required by law to inform parents in advance if they are going on strike. Olivia's teacher will be on strike and all but two of Spencer's teachers will be on strike tomorrow. Clara's teacher is a very sensible and dedicated teacher and rumor has it that she never strikes! This morning when Clara woke up she didn't want to go to school. She posted her notice and we have been informed. Clara is going on strike! We shall see what the morning brings...

Cochon tête (pig head)

To market to market to buy a fat pig.
Home again home again jiggety jig.

I went to the supermarket today to get food for Thanksgiving dinner. Turkeys are scarce. Pretty much non-existent in the grocery store. I thought I'd get a ham to go with the small turkeys we have ordered. This is what I found in the pork section. Cochon tête anyone?

Faire la queue (to stand in line)

Saturday we went to Euro Disney to celebrate Olivia's birthday. We had planned to spend about 4 hours at the park, but ended up staying 7! Why? Why did we spend 7 hours in freezing cold temperatures?! Because of the enourmous queue! It was a day to "faire la queue". Everyone with children in the European Union was in attendance at Disney yesterday. We thought it wouldn't be crowded because of the extremely cold weather. We were wrong! It didn't seem to spoil the fun for the kids...even when Lilly and Clara only got to go on 3 rides the entire day! The older kids managed "fast passes" on some of the bigger attractions so they were lucky.

All of the Christmas decorations are up at Disney. It's very pretty and made us excited for the upcoming holiday season.










Spencer invited his friend Arthur to join us for the day. They had a grand time on the giant roller-coasters. I'm not a real roller-coaster person. I didn't think Disney had the upside down corkscrew types. I learned my lesson. Olivia asked me to go on Space Mountain Mission II with her and the boys. When we were strapped in our seats Olivia said, "you're going to love it when it goes upside down the first time!" Oh brother! I was locked in so I had to go. It wasn't too bad...I closed my eyes the entire time! I really feel like an old mother.

One of my pet peeves at amusement parks are balloons. They are so cute and cheerful, but what a pain in the neck. Every line I stood in someone had a balloon tied to their wrist and the balloons were swatting us in the face. I guess I shouldn't be such a grinch about this. After all doesn't every kid want a balloon to carry around? I might just have to buy one for Lilly next time :)

Olivia

Hard to believe that Olivia is 11 years old today! She came out kicking and screaming, but has been the most calm and delightful child ever. We love her. She requested blond brownies for her school birthday treat. I think that was appropriate for our "blond beauty". The kids at school sang the Happy Birthday song in five different languages: French, English, German, Russian & Polish.







Yesterday was a school holiday. We had a little birthday luncheon with Olivia's new friends. They had typical kid food with chicken nuggets & fries. We added fry sauce and ranch dressing to "Americanize" it all. Olivia requested crepes for dessert. I added sprinkles to the batter which gave them a "party" flair. The girls jumped rope, played "Twister" and had a huge game of U-No that lasted over an hour.


Jesse, Annie & Alison (all from the USA)
Anna (from Poland)
Claire (from Australia)
Zoe (from England)
Tess (from France)
Olivia, Clara & Lilly (from the Randall family)




Olivia is creative, thoughtful, funny, smart, friendly, silly, kind, obedient, spiritual, inquisitive, warm, helpful, hyper & loving. She is a reader a laugher a violinist a sister a friend an explorer a dancer and so many more things. We love you Olivia and hope you will have many more years of living Happily! Happy Birthday!!!

Guy Fawkes Night

Saturday night we attended a "post" Guy Fawkes Night party at James & Tracey Boyers home. James is French and Tracey is English so they celebrate both countries holidays at their house.

Remember remember the 5th of November! This was the date Guy Fawkes had a secret plan to overthrow the king of England. An old mercenary named Guy dropped 36 barrels of Gunpowder. His plot didn't work, but makes a good excuse for a late night November party. It's celebrated with bonfires, a burning effigy of Guy, fireworks and taffy apples.

The kids loved playing around the fire and the fireworks were outstanding. We love learning and living in a place where history comes alive!

Luzern

Veniza

Linge (laundry)

Halloween

Pisa

Last year Clara's school teacher Ms. VanWagoner taught her all about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Ever since that lesson Clara has been itching to get to there. She was not disappointed. The tower is still leaning AND she was old enough to climb to the top! We joined right in with the rest of the tourists and had our own family photo shoot. It's a mighty powerful feeling to hold up such a building! We had a two hour wait to climb to the top. Other than the tower and the church there isn't much to Pisa. Lilly and Maya Thomas were not old enough to make the climb (you have to be 8 years old) so Traci graciously stayed behind & entertained the two. Our climb was at sunset and by the time we got to the top the sun was almost gone. It was such a strange sensation to enter the tower. You can sense immediately that it's not straight up.


What an amazing thing that it's still standing and stabilized. A miracle? We had a couple of miracles of our own while trying to leave Pisa. The cars were parked in a big lot a few miles away from the tourist sights. We took a city bus from the parking lot, but failed to check return times. Oops! The buses were not running after 6pm. When we realized this we started walking fast. Taylor was due at the Pisa airport in less than an hour! He had to fly back to France to teach school Friday and that was the only flight out. Panic hit when we walked into a dead end and had no idea where we were going. Remember we had 7 children 4 adults and we are all on foot. There were no taxis or tour guides. Luckily we found the road and made it to the car just in time. While piling kids into the car Taylor looked over at Spencer and noticed that his contact lens had fallen out. Just as Taylor went to catch it the contact fell. In the dark on the blacktop we actually found his contact. Ohhh the miracle of Pisa!

Le Cinque Terre

Gusto! (Taste)

Gusto! Italy is all about taste! We did our best to taste as many gelato flavors as possible. Chocolate, strawberry and lemon were the favorites. No wonder Italy is a kids dream. Pizza, pasta and ice cream everyday. The kids had their first chestnuts. They were actually roasting over a fire in the middle of the marketplace. The texture is different, but we thought with a little salt and olive oil they could be delicious!

Firenze (Florence)

Rain dominated our day in Firenze. We didn't have umbrellas when we started out, but thanks to the street vendors we stayed dry. Our GPS system was not working so we followed the Thomas family into the city. At one point we were on a very narrow street. Doug tried to maneuver around a delivery truck and completely took out a parked motorcycle! No damage done. At that point in the journey we were glad to be following. Our main point of interest was Michaelangelo's David statue. Really it was just amazing. We reviewed the story of "David". Lilly wondered really how big Goliath was since David stands a mere 17 feet! The rest of the art in the museum was interesting, but the kids unanimously voted against paintings from the Dark Ages. There is a definite aura of light and life in the Renaissance. We soaked our feet walking across the famous bridge and then we each took a turn rubbing our hands on the brass boar which apparently brings good luck. Taylor introduced the kids to Italian hot chocolate. It's more like pudding than a drink. Nothing like some good sludge to warm your body.

Lucca

Lucca was the closest city to our villa. Aside from the "round" town square it has a walkway on top of the city. We rented bikes and took the entire loop. There were lots of pedestrians which meant we had to swerve and sway to avoid any accidents. Clara was the most nervous, but said at the end, "I can't believe I can ride my bike like that!"

Italie

Really is there anything more relaxing and beautiful than Italie? The kids were wondering when we arrived late at night. We rented a villa in Tuscany with our friends the Thomas'. Our villa looked sooo scarry at night. Old stone walls, no windows, and very strange decor. Olivia said it looked like they showed up at the end of a yard sale and took everything home. The walls were plastered with ugly artwork, statues in every corner (Buddah, Pharoah & naked ladies) and little trinkets on all the shelves. The kids started to cry and said they didn't want to vacation in Italy! What was a mother to do? I said everything would be better in the morning and boy was I right! Once again when we opened the door to the outside world we were in awe and fell in love with the Italian countryside. Needless to say we avoided the inside of the villa as much as possible.