So a quick New Year’s Eve post. As we sit in the lower living room (a room we use very little) in front of the fire place enjoying our oysters, shrimp, and fondue it occurred to me that I had not lit the candles. I was temporarily distracted by what appears to be “High School Musical” -- in French -- on one station, and on the other station we manage to get, from what we can gather, a celebrity/New Year’s Eve/costume party/bloopers countdown (HIGHLY entertaining). I grabbed the box of matches from on top of the fireplace and proceeded to pull one out to light the candles. But what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a previously burnt match, and many more were here. Seriously, who thinks this is a good idea? Are already-burned matches really worth the risk of putting back in the box to re-use? Really?
That’s all I got.
Happy New Year to all and we miss you very much. Enjoy ringing in the New Year – don’t bother calling us as it will be 6 a.m. for us and we’ll be hoping our kids stay sleeping (we’ve managed to get them accustomed to the laid back French life style of sleeping till 7:30, 8:20 today!)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Growin' Up
This is a post about Cole…
Anyone who knows Cole knows that he is a thumb sucker. Although it has its advantages, anyone who knows me knows that I was against it (as a long time thumb sucker, I know what a hard habit it is to break.) I am not ashamed to admit that I have thought about that horrible tasting stuff to paint on his thumb -- I know, he’s only 20 months old -- can never start too early, right?
Anyone who knows Cole knows that he is a thumb sucker. Although it has its advantages, anyone who knows me knows that I was against it (as a long time thumb sucker, I know what a hard habit it is to break.) I am not ashamed to admit that I have thought about that horrible tasting stuff to paint on his thumb -- I know, he’s only 20 months old -- can never start too early, right?
So, an interesting thing happened. A few weeks ago Cole contracted the infamous “Hand, Foot & Mouth” virus. He developed blisters on his hands…, well you get it… The worst were the ones on his thumb -- because he had it in his mouth. So for two nights I put a band-aid on his thumb in order to deter him from sucking and making things worse. Deter…it did. He has not sucked his thumb since. And in my craziness I even specifically look for it at night to make sure he is not “closet sucking” when I give him a kiss before I go to bed. Either he is no longer sucking his thumb or he is really sneaky. Not sure what this says about my kid. On the one hand, does it suggest that he has such a bad memory that two nights is all it takes to forget a well-loved and established habit? Or on the other hand maybe he has such a good memory that he just can’t get that “bad band-aid taste” out of his mind. Either way, GREAT outcome.
Additionally, a report on Cole’s verbal skills. Although he can communicate his needs somewhat well in English, he is picking up the critical 20 month old “Survival French.” A bit of an explanation of the words he knows:
“Dou dou” – Lance and I were a bit alarmed by this one at first for obvious reasons. But in France a “dou dou” is any type of item that a child uses to comfort themselves (i.e. a teddy bear, a blanket, a pacifier, etc.) So for my kids it is Eileen Hersh’s “taggie.” Cole asks for his “dou dou” at naptime and bedtime… or anytime he sees his or Ellie’s.
“Bon bon” – you know what it means: “kicking back and eating bon bons all day.” It’s candy. And here they give kids a lot of it -- there is a bon bon factory in town for heavens sake. He learned that one pretty quickly, as did his sister.
“Coo coo” – this is a phrase that most adults use when trying to get the attention of kids. It is basically a combination of our “Yoo hoo” and “Peek-a-boo” but used more frequently. People say it to him all the time, in the grocery store, at the market, at school… For Christmas he got a mechanical rabbit that wheels around the stone floors repeating “Coo coo” incessantly. He loves it. He now just thinks it is the funniest thing to say and uses it appropriately to get people’s attention.
“Ca Ca” – so this one is tough. In France they say use the word “ca ca” to mean, well, just that. He is now trying to use that when contextually appropriate. HOWEVER, apparently “chocolat” (pronounced "showcolah") is too much of a mouthful for Cole so he has abbreviated that word down to “co co” but this sounds alarmingly like “ca ca.” So it is impossible to ascertain when he says “ca ca” if he wants chocolate or if he has to go to the bathroom (or, more commonly, already has gone to the bathroom).
One final note -- the 400 year old stone stairs that he could barley crawl up when we got here, AND are a serious safety hazard as they have very inadequate iron railings... he can now walk up on his own. I guess this is just his way of showing me he is growing up.
Additionally, a report on Cole’s verbal skills. Although he can communicate his needs somewhat well in English, he is picking up the critical 20 month old “Survival French.” A bit of an explanation of the words he knows:
“Dou dou” – Lance and I were a bit alarmed by this one at first for obvious reasons. But in France a “dou dou” is any type of item that a child uses to comfort themselves (i.e. a teddy bear, a blanket, a pacifier, etc.) So for my kids it is Eileen Hersh’s “taggie.” Cole asks for his “dou dou” at naptime and bedtime… or anytime he sees his or Ellie’s.
“Bon bon” – you know what it means: “kicking back and eating bon bons all day.” It’s candy. And here they give kids a lot of it -- there is a bon bon factory in town for heavens sake. He learned that one pretty quickly, as did his sister.
“Coo coo” – this is a phrase that most adults use when trying to get the attention of kids. It is basically a combination of our “Yoo hoo” and “Peek-a-boo” but used more frequently. People say it to him all the time, in the grocery store, at the market, at school… For Christmas he got a mechanical rabbit that wheels around the stone floors repeating “Coo coo” incessantly. He loves it. He now just thinks it is the funniest thing to say and uses it appropriately to get people’s attention.
“Ca Ca” – so this one is tough. In France they say use the word “ca ca” to mean, well, just that. He is now trying to use that when contextually appropriate. HOWEVER, apparently “chocolat” (pronounced "showcolah") is too much of a mouthful for Cole so he has abbreviated that word down to “co co” but this sounds alarmingly like “ca ca.” So it is impossible to ascertain when he says “ca ca” if he wants chocolate or if he has to go to the bathroom (or, more commonly, already has gone to the bathroom).
One final note -- the 400 year old stone stairs that he could barley crawl up when we got here, AND are a serious safety hazard as they have very inadequate iron railings... he can now walk up on his own. I guess this is just his way of showing me he is growing up.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Stille Nacht
It's Christmas Eve... or, at least it is for the next four minutes... and we've just finished up our sampling of traditional specialties, including escargot, fois gras, chestnuts and, to wash it down, Amy's homemade eggnog. It's been a bit difficult to get into the proper Christmas spirit -- there are minimal decorations in the village and the closest hope we have for a white christmas is a really heavy frost.
With that in mind, we decided to take a road trip this past weekend to take my mother to some traditional European Christkindlemarkts. We rented a car and drove to Basel, Switzerland and then Saturday drove up to Strasbourg, France. Basel has a well-regarded Christmas Market and it lived up to its reputation... at least, after two or three mugs of Glühwein it seemed pretty good.
Look at all those lights...
Strasbourg is a gorgeous city and they really know how to deck the streets out for the season (they had real chandeliers hanging over the streets for God's sake!) but sadly the Christkindlemarkt was more like a bad Walmart Boxing Day sidewalk sale. Amy thinks that characterization is a bit harsh. They did have some great food (you take a pretzel and bury it in cheese and bacon... there should be a Nobel Prize for this), and the brilliance of the 16 ounce cup of Glühwein can not be understated, but there was definitely a more "mass-produced" feel to this one as compared to Basel.
The beauty of both cities though was the sausages. One of the things we will miss most not being home for Christmas is Grandma Hile's (born and raised in Frankfurt) "hot dog" Christmas Eve, where every varitety of German sausage is chased with pickled herring and beet-soaked eggs, and washed down with the beverage of your choice.
At lunch in Strasbourg, the only restaurant that had any open tables was a beer haus with a food menu limited to sausages and pretzles (perfect!). The beer menu had something in the neighborhood of 42 seasonal beers (oh my). The sausages came four links to a paper plate, with a healthy dab of spicy dijon on the side and put a big, giant smile on Amy's face because they reminded her of home. And back in Basel we even picked up a Stollen because apparently, these Germans actually eat that.
We of course partook in the Swiss obsession with melted cheese as a main ingredient. It's really hard to go wrong with any dish that includes melted cheese and cherry liquor as its main players. I learned a few things, such as: Kirsch is not just for fondue anymore -- drop an ounce or two in your Glühwein and you'll be amazed at what you'd consider purchasing. Also, once you've had 2 or 5 mugs of Glühwein, you might want to pass on riding the mini-merry-go-round with your kids -- especially when they choose the spinning tea-cup instead of the pretty horsey. Ugh.
The drive home set us in the perfect Christmas spirit as we drove through snow-covered Alpine meadows and under the shadows of white-capped peaks.
The rest of the week here was a bit hectic but we did manage to corral the herd into the Cathedral in Uzes for the "family" mass at 6:00 Christmas Eve. We even stuck it through for over an hour, beating a stealthy escape just before they took communion and surely would have discovered our pagan... er... Protestant status. Singing Silent Night in French on Christmas Eve in a 400 year-old French Cathedral is something I will keep with me for a long long time. Juggling my squirming, cranky, restless, over-tired, under-stimulated kids for an hour is something I hope I forget by morning (excuse me while I go pour another Toddy).
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.
Merry Christmas to everyone who finds their way to these pages.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Lonesome Day
So I want to do a quick post about something that I found amazing. For the past 3+ weeks I have driven past a tiny red car parked in the vineyards outside our house. It caught my eye and I immediately needed to find the tiny little person who must be associated with it. On the contrary, it was an average sized man who was hand-pruning the vines. I should admit that it took me several trips back and forth to ascertain this information as the hairpin turns in the road and cars careening in the other direction around those turns were not conducive to long leisurely glances in to the vines. I know, "guy working in the vineyard," no big deal right? But what I found so amazing is that this guy was out there everyday for almost a month -- sometimes in the sun (not too bad), sometimes in the Mistral winds, sometimes in the fog, and sometimes in the cold, cold rain -- all by himself. He meticulously and methodically worked his way down the LONG rows clipping the stray vines all the way down to the trunk. And then, nonchalantly, moved on to the next, and the next, and the next. I thought to myself. "How does this guy do it?" "How does he stay sane?"
It must be so overwhelming to look down the row, not be able to see the end, and see 50 more rows that look exactly like it. But then it occurred to me that it must be cathartic: no kids tugging at your pant legs, no faces or hands to be washed, no dishes to be done, no emails to return (no blog postings to write!). Just one vine after another. Must be nice to be in the silent vineyards of Southern France with nothing to do but clip, think, and sing songs in your head. So here are some pictures, as a shout out to this guy (he did think I was kinda crazy to be taking his picture). Chapeau.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
Tis the season of Jingle Bells and frosty noses, hot chocolate and warm fires, and (in these parts) les Marchés de Noël. These local Christmas Markets bring out the best of each little village -- in terms of craft makers, olive purveyors, raffle ticket sellers, and (most important) the nice lady that goes into the back to microwave the vin chaud.
So it was on Saturday morning that we ventured north of Uzés to the little village of Vallabrix last weekend for the Marché de Noël, which promised a special surprise "pour les enfants" at noon. Needing that perfect shot to finish our Christmas cards, we dressed the kids up in their finest Christmas outfits, loaded them into the car (Ellie still not feeling 100% after the Thanksgiving Day Disaster) and drove North. We got there, drove around a few times, finally asked an older women which way to the Marché de Noël, to which she replied: "le Marché de Noël? C'est demain."
Oops.
So it was on SUNDAY morning that we dressed the kids in their finest Christmas outfits, loaded them into the car (Ellie feeling much better) and drove North. We were a bit surprised at how small and... informal the whole setup was, but we browsed the offerings and enjoyed some vin chaud and a crêpe with chestnut confiture and even found the answer to that question we've all asked ourselves so many times, when observing some horribly kitschy hand-made crafty type thing at our grandparent's homes: "where in the world does someone buy crap like this?!" Now we know.
So it was on Saturday morning that we ventured north of Uzés to the little village of Vallabrix last weekend for the Marché de Noël, which promised a special surprise "pour les enfants" at noon. Needing that perfect shot to finish our Christmas cards, we dressed the kids up in their finest Christmas outfits, loaded them into the car (Ellie still not feeling 100% after the Thanksgiving Day Disaster) and drove North. We got there, drove around a few times, finally asked an older women which way to the Marché de Noël, to which she replied: "le Marché de Noël? C'est demain."
Oops.
So it was on SUNDAY morning that we dressed the kids in their finest Christmas outfits, loaded them into the car (Ellie feeling much better) and drove North. We were a bit surprised at how small and... informal the whole setup was, but we browsed the offerings and enjoyed some vin chaud and a crêpe with chestnut confiture and even found the answer to that question we've all asked ourselves so many times, when observing some horribly kitschy hand-made crafty type thing at our grandparent's homes: "where in the world does someone buy crap like this?!" Now we know.
When the church bells struck noon, we hurried the kids up to the road in hopes that Père Noël might pause for a snapshot. Oh, the excitement, the anticipation, visions of an old French Père Noël, jauntily swooping up the smiling urchins for the perfect image to adorn our Holiday missives...
And then... there he was! It was him...
... er, I mean her. I think. Clearly this was one of Santa's helpers. I really don't think any words of mine could do justice to this Santa. There are times when things are so beyond your expectations that you simply can't describe them. And there are also times when things are so below your expectations that they take on a new light. As comically inept as Santa was, the kids didn't seem to care one bit. I'm sure the basket full of bonbons didn't hurt but nonetheless it was nice to see them so excited at Père Noël's arrival.
As we walked back to the car, we couldn't stop shaking our heads and chuckling. Ho ho ho, and to all a good night.
And then... there he was! It was him...
... er, I mean her. I think. Clearly this was one of Santa's helpers. I really don't think any words of mine could do justice to this Santa. There are times when things are so beyond your expectations that you simply can't describe them. And there are also times when things are so below your expectations that they take on a new light. As comically inept as Santa was, the kids didn't seem to care one bit. I'm sure the basket full of bonbons didn't hurt but nonetheless it was nice to see them so excited at Père Noël's arrival.As we walked back to the car, we couldn't stop shaking our heads and chuckling. Ho ho ho, and to all a good night.
"Um, Dad, this "Santa" lady is kinda creeping us out."
Monday, December 1, 2008
What I Like About You
For all of the negative publicity France may get (from us, from the general public, etc.) here is a post of
"Things They Got Right"
*Bathrooms stalls - Although sometimes you have to pay to use the "toilette" in France they do have pretty great bathroom stalls. As opposed to American stalls where, when you have to drag your 19 month and/or 3 year old in with you they have the ability to crawl on the floor, under the door, and into other people's stalls, not in France. Every stall is its own little room. Sure you still have kids crawling on the floor and there's frequently no toilet paper, but at least they can't escape. Additionally, some of the public bathrooms on the street are entire sealed rooms that get hosed down (i.e. sanitized) from top to bottom after you leave. You walk in and everything is wet -- no crawling on the floor in these but at least it is clean.
*#1 and #2 flushes - O.K. a bit graphic but all toilets here have two buttons. One for when you need less water, and another bigger button for when you need more water flow. BRILLIANT - enough said.
*Pie crusts - They have some pretty awesome flaky pre-made "Tart crusts." They have several versions, one specifically for sweet tarts, one for quiches, one for savory tarts, etc. No plain old frozen, unfold pie crusts here.
*Oil changes - They told us that we would not have to change the oil in their car. This is not necesarily a function of the car but may just be a function of the laissez-faire attitude regarding cars and service maitanence. The French people in our house are probably not loving that they have to change the oil in our car every 3 months.
*Stain remover - Now in the US, we have a million products that remove stains from clothing -- far too many to process. Here in France they have two choices, the name brand and the Carrefour brand. We currently have the latter and it is AWESOME. It has removed more stains from the kids clothes than anything we have at home (ballpoint pen all over a white shirt, for example.)
*Clothes pins - Since practically no one uses dryers in France because of HIGH electricity costs there is a great need for quality designed pins to hang all your laundy (and hey, you never have to worry about anything shrinking). None of those wooden ones where the spring breaks - they have well engenieered and sturdy plastic ones that can hold a fitted sheet in place through the strongest Mistral.
*Grocery store bags, or NOT - so France has made it a policy to not offer any type of bags at the grocery store. If you want to carry your groceries out in a bag, you either bring bags in yourself or buy them at the store. Now this can be good and bad. Clearly great for the environment. Clearly bad for me when I get all the way into the store, shop, and then realize we have no bags and I have to walk out to the car with all the gorceries loose in the cart and bag them later. But you only make that mistake a few times.
*Cart return - So at the grocery store they have normal carts MINUS the child restaint straps. BUT all the carts are locked up in the nice cart return area of the parking lot. In order to get the cart you have to put in 1 Euro to unlock it. Then, good to go, in order to get your money back (you got it) return the cart to the designated area. For the little amount that it is a pain it actually is nice because it prevents you from trying to pull into an awesome parking space right up front only to find out that there is a cart in it that someone has lazily not returned.
*Butter in a tub - not margarine, Real Butter, from Brittany. So tasty. Maybe we have this in the States but I've never seen it. It is nice to not have to wrap the unused portion of butter back up in the waxed paper, just put the lid on.
*Cheap wine - I know it has been said before but it is nice to not have the over inflated prices on wine. You can get very good bottles of wine for $4.00 and phenomenal bottles for $8.00. What more to ask, really?
That is all I got so far.
"Things They Got Right"
*Bathrooms stalls - Although sometimes you have to pay to use the "toilette" in France they do have pretty great bathroom stalls. As opposed to American stalls where, when you have to drag your 19 month and/or 3 year old in with you they have the ability to crawl on the floor, under the door, and into other people's stalls, not in France. Every stall is its own little room. Sure you still have kids crawling on the floor and there's frequently no toilet paper, but at least they can't escape. Additionally, some of the public bathrooms on the street are entire sealed rooms that get hosed down (i.e. sanitized) from top to bottom after you leave. You walk in and everything is wet -- no crawling on the floor in these but at least it is clean.
*#1 and #2 flushes - O.K. a bit graphic but all toilets here have two buttons. One for when you need less water, and another bigger button for when you need more water flow. BRILLIANT - enough said.
*Pie crusts - They have some pretty awesome flaky pre-made "Tart crusts." They have several versions, one specifically for sweet tarts, one for quiches, one for savory tarts, etc. No plain old frozen, unfold pie crusts here.
*Oil changes - They told us that we would not have to change the oil in their car. This is not necesarily a function of the car but may just be a function of the laissez-faire attitude regarding cars and service maitanence. The French people in our house are probably not loving that they have to change the oil in our car every 3 months.
*Stain remover - Now in the US, we have a million products that remove stains from clothing -- far too many to process. Here in France they have two choices, the name brand and the Carrefour brand. We currently have the latter and it is AWESOME. It has removed more stains from the kids clothes than anything we have at home (ballpoint pen all over a white shirt, for example.)
*Clothes pins - Since practically no one uses dryers in France because of HIGH electricity costs there is a great need for quality designed pins to hang all your laundy (and hey, you never have to worry about anything shrinking). None of those wooden ones where the spring breaks - they have well engenieered and sturdy plastic ones that can hold a fitted sheet in place through the strongest Mistral.
*Grocery store bags, or NOT - so France has made it a policy to not offer any type of bags at the grocery store. If you want to carry your groceries out in a bag, you either bring bags in yourself or buy them at the store. Now this can be good and bad. Clearly great for the environment. Clearly bad for me when I get all the way into the store, shop, and then realize we have no bags and I have to walk out to the car with all the gorceries loose in the cart and bag them later. But you only make that mistake a few times.
*Cart return - So at the grocery store they have normal carts MINUS the child restaint straps. BUT all the carts are locked up in the nice cart return area of the parking lot. In order to get the cart you have to put in 1 Euro to unlock it. Then, good to go, in order to get your money back (you got it) return the cart to the designated area. For the little amount that it is a pain it actually is nice because it prevents you from trying to pull into an awesome parking space right up front only to find out that there is a cart in it that someone has lazily not returned.
*Butter in a tub - not margarine, Real Butter, from Brittany. So tasty. Maybe we have this in the States but I've never seen it. It is nice to not have to wrap the unused portion of butter back up in the waxed paper, just put the lid on.
*Cheap wine - I know it has been said before but it is nice to not have the over inflated prices on wine. You can get very good bottles of wine for $4.00 and phenomenal bottles for $8.00. What more to ask, really?
That is all I got so far.
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