Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Joyeux Noel

Traffic, Antiques, Ice skating, and Crepes

This week we were lucky enough to have our friend Mr. Pat come and visit us.  He had a request from his mom to check out a few shops in downtown Paris and we were happy to help him complete this mission. 

We sat in traffic for about an hour, the gridlock here is something spectacular to watch.

We made it to the Rue Saint-Paul and we were able to visit a couple of shops.  These signs were all over the place, enticing me to come back this weekend.

After shopping and lunch we made our way back to the Hotel de Ville and fulfilled Addie's request, ice skating.

Malachi was a trooper today, he was happy to ride in his car seat so I didn't have to carry all 16 pounds of love.

Ben did a fantastic job skating today.

Addie had a blast.  A fun thing happened while we were there, we saw a teacher from Addie's school.  I always feel like I am settling into a new place when I run into someone I know while I am out.  I never imagined I would see people I know in downtown Paris.

Daddy had as much fun as the kids, he made it fun to watch.

After ice skating it was time for crepes!  

Strangers were cracking up as they saw Garrett enjoying his snack.

He REALLY enjoyed his crepe.

Here is Mr. Pat, he was happy to carry Garrett.  After a full day of sight-seeing this little man was tired.

What a fantastic day!  

Merry Christmas Sing Along

Addie and Ben had a Holiday Sing Along at their school this week.  It was so much fun to see this performance, we have been listening to the kids practice these songs for weeks.  About half of the songs were in English and half were in French, the kids did great!

Here are a few pictures.

Addie was ready.

Ben spotted us in the crowd.

He is such a sweet boy.

Addie had a special part, playing the triangle.

This was near the end, and I think Ben was done.

This is such a special time on year, I am so thankful we were able to encourage our kiddos and celebrate the Holiday Season with them.

10 on 10 December

What you do: take a picture for 10 hours on the tenth day of each month to document the beauty in every day life. 

7:37 AM

How could you not be happy with this face to greet you in the morning?

8:15 

Time for school, here is the crew headed up the hill to the bus stop.

This is the other direction, taken from the sidewalk across the street from our house.  I love the sun rise with the Eiffel Tower.

9:22

Garrett is all cuddled on the couch watching a movie.  Our living room has finally started to fill in.  

This is a view from the tv looking out.

10:19

I started working on Malachi's baby book and realized how much I missed with the other kids' baby books.  There are so many details that I wish I would have written down.  I am thankful for all the work I have done and I hope they appreciate it one day.

11:20

These cuties are too much fun.

Can you tell that Malachi adores his big brother?

These pictures make me smile every time.  I can't get that kind of smile out of Malachi, but Garrett does without even trying.

12:10

Tummy Time!

2:20

I know I missed an hour in there, it was nap time and the house was quiet.

2:56

Garrett loves taking care of Malachi.

These boys are so sweet.

4:07

On our way back from the bus stop.  

Managing all 4 kids on the walk home from the bus stop can be challenging, but we are figuring it out.  Malachi loves riding in the carrier.

5:35

Here are the kiddos playing nicely while I fixed dinner.

Here they are not playing quite as nice, but they were having a lot of fun.

6:13 

Almost dinner time and Malachi was sound asleep in his bouncy seat.  He loves to be around all of us, even when he is sleeping. 

The kids settled down considerably when the iPad was introduced.  After this we ate dinner and then it was off to bed.

Getting into the Holiday Spirit

I am so excited that we will be spending Christmas in our house this year.  Unfortunately we didn't bring many of our decorations with us from Texas so all I have to work with are the few things we bought in Norway last year, meaning, not much.  We did go out and find a fake tree.  We considered a real tree, but the image of us tying it to the roof of our car and all the vacuuming that would ensue made the option in the box look pretty good.

Here is a taste of some of our decorating, more Christmas cheer to come.

One new tradition we are doing this year is The Advent Jesse Tree.  With our kids it is so easy to get caught up in the craziness of the season, I really like the devotional book and the focus it helps provide. My goal is to buy a set of ornaments that go along with each day and let the kids open them, but I knew that was too much to have ready for this year.  Instead we are reading the devotion and letting the kids each color an ornament.  Then we are hanging them on a special tree.  I love yesterday's ornament because it shows where each of the kids stand with their coloring.  

I got the ornaments HERE. 

The kids are so happy that it is the Christmas season, Garrett loves watching 'Mismas' movies and I had put them all away until December.  I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season!

Time to Say Good Bye

Saying good bye is always hard, especially since Nannie has been with us for almost 2 whole months!

Getting one last cuddle in.

Nannie did leave the kids with some parting gifts, new Thor hammers for the boys.

Their shirts say "What does the fox say?"  This song has been played many, many times over the last 2 months.  

Addie was very excited about her parting gifts, a new Madeline book, a book about chateaus, and a princess wand we had left in Florida.

And of course Addie got a fox shirt too.  Malachi's shirt was lost that morning, but it has since been found and a group photo should be up soon.

We love you Nannie, GeeGee and Aunt Laura!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving definitely felt different this year.  The kids still had school and Jon still had work.  We did plan a Thanksgiving dinner for Thursday evening.  We set up a table in the back of our living room to accommodate the crowd.  Unfortunately our living room has no overhead lighting so we brought in a couple of extra lamps and a lot of candles.  Here is the view from the kitchen.

Nannie and Aunt Laura going after the turkey.  The turkey was ordered from and cooked by our local butcher.  I must say I enjoyed stopping into the butcher that morning and picking up our perfectly cooked and browned turkey.

Jon on the phone making taxi arrangements for my family's departure the next morning.

GeeGee hanging out with our little turkey.

Malachi is such a sweet little boy.

Here is a group photo thanks to Ryan, one of Jon's coworkers that joined us for dinner.  Even thought we didn't have cranberry sauce or green bean casserole it was still a yummy meal and a great time with family.  

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!