Thanksgiving 2010

After last years "ham" debacle, we decided to go traditional turkey and the turkey was a great success thanks to successful turkey talk with the town butcher and the terrific cooking skills of my dear friend Bene Tucker. (Sorry, the alliteration opportunity was too good to pass on)  The regal bird was accompanied by mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, bread stuffing, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, sweet potato souffle, tomato and cucumber salad and biscuits that put the Cracker Barrel to shame.  How I wish I could take credit for the latter.  While my cooking skills have advanced a couple of notches since moving to France, I haven't even begun to think about trying to master the southern biscuit.  However, my good friend Kim Cabe is a brave soul and a shining star in the kitchen and she blessed our meal with the buttery fluffy yummyness that made us all feel like we were at home.  Our 5000 calorie meal wasn't complete until we all had a slice of good old fashioned pumpkin pie with whipped cream... what Thanksgiving meal is complete without that?  We are now on day 2 after the big feast and I have had stuffing, sweet potato souffle and broccoli casserole for 3 of the 5 possible meals from the last two days... and I could eat more!  Surely, Thanksgiving dinner is what will be served to us in heaven - guilt free!

As I was too busy eating, drinking and being merry during our meal.. our pictures are lacking.  However we have a few memorable moments captured by Kodak... or, more accurately, my digital memory card.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!

 La Table des Pages

 La Table des petites - Thais et Emily

  La table of les good stuff - wine and homemade foie gras

 Getting ready to toast his 3 day old son - Jacob Matthew!  

Congratulations Matthew and Kim and Maudy!

Jacob Matthew Cabe - 3 days old - Being introduced to the french tradition of giving the baby a taste of the bubbly.

 Sweet little Sawyer Tucker - 8 weeks old

Les Grandes enjoying Home Alone - Enya, Chloe, Sophia, Emily and Joshua

Post meal table adorned with the beautiful arrangement of flowers from my friend, Bene.

The Fall I Finally Fell for France

Wow.. time flies when you are having intermittent bursts of fun and are busy as a little pollen collecting bee.  Ever since the little munchkins started school we have been going pretty non-stop and loving mostly every minute of it.  There has definitely been a learning curve regarding scheduling, organizing time and learning to say no but we are slowly getting into a school going groove.. I think!  

It is hard to believe the school year is a couple of months away to being half-way over (ok, maybe I am already counting down the days).  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time goes by...  now that the children are no longer babies - not even my little cherub like Emily - I feel like I need to hang on to every minute of their childhood.  I asked Sophia if she could please stop growing and she told me she would try - with all her child-like sincerity.  Of all of our children, she is the one who would NOT not want to grow up.  She is already designing her wedding gown and looking forward to getting married to the husband who is out there but she doesn't know yet and having children - Erin and Isabelle - but she still wants to live near Mom and Dad.  Joshua, on the other hand, is quite content to promise to never leave home sauf a brief stint at Clemson football as their star quarterback.. wait, that is Daddy's dream.  Emily, well, all we know at this point is she is perfectly happy watching Belle et la Bete in her pink princess shoes while telling us she can't not know how to.   

I would be lying if I didn't admit that there are some moments (hours?) when these precious gifts from God make me want to run for the Auvergne hills promptly after stopping by Nicholas for a nice bottle of St Emilion Grand Cru and Carrefour for a baguette and chunk of P'tit Basque fromage, however, I would not trade those hours or the bazillion of other sweet hugs, kisses, movie nights, bedtime stories, messy paint days, bath time fun, car karaoke, American Idol/So You Think You Can Dance marathons, baking, morning dance offs or random I Love Yous for anything in the entire world.

Here is a hodge podge of photos from our Fall 2010 while living in fabulous France.  And, in case anyone hasn't heard the news yet - We are going to be living here for 2.5 more years... Yep, can you believe it??  Who knew I would ever agree to THAT.  If Freddie had presented me with the question six months ago, it would have been No Way Jean Jacques (or Jose, whatever).  However, I think this is the Fall that I have fallen for France.

So, this will be our home until the Summer of 2013.

 The famous Place de Jaude

 "Strike a Pose" Sophia

Date Morning with Sophia...mmm  Chocolat Chaud!

 Our new mode of transportation to school - le bus!

 Playtime during a shopping trip to TRU

 Hey Mom - Can I be Davy Crockett for Halloween?

 Silly Faces

 Caught You Emily Claire!

 Batter is for baking E...  Tongue back in mouth, please.

 Loving the 3D french films... todays showing - Moi, Moche et Mechant (Despicable Me)

Mommy and Emily time at the Patinoire Brasserie during Sophia's ice skating lesson.

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!!!

Hike at Lac Guery

Three weeks ago Kim and I took the kids on a hike around Lac de Guery located about 40 minutes away from Clermont-Ferrand. The weather could not have been more perfect for a picnic on the lake and a hike up a rather steep hill to a cascading waterfall followed by a hike back down the hill, over the fields and through the woods. With the crystal clear blue sky and volcanoes in the background, we discovered yet another breathtaking part of France.

Mom.. is this mud or poo?

I still can't believe this is where I live... Beautiful!

Such a boy.. anything is a sword or a gun.

Crossing over the random ladder on a fence in the middle of a field/forest.

A little game of hide and seek...

The waterfall

My little Emily bug..hiker extraordinaire!

Sophia leading the way...

The gorgeous Lac de Guery