Pre-Christmas Mania

We suspended our usual "museum day" last weekend to take in some of the Christmas fever around town. Generally decorations are a bit subtler here than at home with the exception of Galleries Lafayette, one of the large fancy department stores not far from Matt's workplace. The giant tree made of large plastic blow-up items was a little too big to fit in my camera frame:

 

I can understand the peppermint swirls and stars, and even the pretzels (it's an Alsatian thing) but the giant doughnuts, pizza slices and CACTUS remain a mystery to me. ???

Père Noël, otherwise known as Santa Claus, was there too. The kids were a little dismayed that he didn't ask them what they wanted for Christmas so now we have to send him a letter. Theo never did tell me what Santa was saying to him here...

On the way home we paused to check out an ad for the new comic book series that's coming out. It's a good thing Santa is always watching as I'm not confident that letter to him will actually get written...

 

The next day it was time to pick out a tree! Luckily there is a garden store just across the street from us. I think Matt was happy to hear some encouraging words about our choice of tree.

 Normally people here just tell us we're doing it wrong.

 

Sam never looks for oncoming traffic this carefully. He isn't concerned with a car hitting him, but if his Christmas tree is threatened, look out!

Made it all the way across the street - whew!

When I was growing up we had to wait to put the star on last. Sam was too impatient for that, apparently. Note - no one was injured during the tree decorating.

Happy Halloween!!!

We had been contemplating how to give the kids a real Halloween this year as it's still a pretty fledgling holiday here and in our neck of the woods trick-or-treating as we know it does not exist. Luckily the boys got an invite to the U.S. Embassy's trick-or-treat night from some friends whose parents work there. Given that the 31st falls on the Paris school break this all took place on the 20th!

We gathered at our friends' apartment on Friday after school and somehow 2 of us managed to get 6 kids ready in their costumes despite the fact that they were all crazed with excitement. I had visions of a trip to the E.R. after Sam's friend Lachlan in all the excitement ran down the hall, slipped and hit head. Thankfully he was ok and we were not derailed!

We made our way by foot to the Embassy and got a kick out of people on the street doing double takes and giving us big smiles as our group walked on, all dressed up for the occasion.

 


Theo decided he missed his Halloween costume back in Seattle so opted to be a werewolf again. Sam opted for a do-it-himself alien costume, which got a little hot along the way, apparently. I'm the witch in the background ;)

 

Once inside the Embassy we were led around in a big group by a Marine and kids went from office to office collecting their candy.  Most of the staff who participated decorated their offices and it was generally pretty festive. I couldn't help but think it wasn't the same as being outside on a dark night going from house to house, but the kids were happy to collect their candy and that was all that mattered to them!

At the end of the line there was a spaghetti dinner for the kids, a haunted house, and a bar for the grown-ups - hallelujah! My vodka tonic tasted like something I drank in college, but after being herded around for over an hour through narrow hallways wearing a warm costume and trying very hard not to step on all the 2 year olds in our group, it was a welcomed treat.

We couldn't bring our phones into the Embassy so the only picture we have inside is one courtesy of our friends. Note Theo is staying in character as he howls at the moon. That's Sam in the front on the right. Even though he's an alien he brought a sword just in case his friend Lachlan, who is dressed as a knight, wanted to fight.

La Rentrée! ...otherwise known as Back to School

The nerves were running high in the weeks leading up to school. Theo was just generally nervous about joining the regular French program at school, stern teachers and lots of homework. Sam was nervous about a few things including "all the math", specifically times tables. We tried to reassure him that they don't do multiplication in 1st grade but I don't think he believed us.

Sam was excited, however, to have a brand new cartable (traditional French school bag) with a glossy lightening bolt on the cover. Both boys seemed to forget their nervousness a bit as they sped off on their scooters in the morning, but Matt did notice that Sam slowed down considerably the closer to school we got.

 

The only reason Theo is so smiley is because he doesn't have to start until 2:15!

 

Theo ended up having a great day, of course, because all they did in their whopping 2 hour day was organize their massive piles of school supplies (it was pretty insane the amount of things they had to bring). He thought his teacher was really nice and that his French was not as rusty as he originally had feared. Off to a good start!

Sam was not as thrilled with his first day. His teachers were nice but not THAT nice. He couldn't remember how to write the letter 'S' correctly (he seems to favor 'Z') and the girls chased him at recess. He calls these girls his enemies but I try to tell him that one's enemies aren't always trying to kiss you ; )

One of the highlights of Sam's day was finding a feather on the way home.

Rest assured Sam's second day was better and Theo's was just as good.
Then they were both home on Wednesday as if none of it had ever happened. Sigh!