Christmas is my favorite holiday. I couldn't think of a better way to start off the break than with a trip to several European Christmas Markets.
"A Christmas market, also known as Christkindlmarkt, Christkindlesmarkt, Christkindlmarket, and Weihnachtsmarkt, is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during advent, mainly the four weeks preceding Christmas Day. These markets originated in Germany and Austria but are now being held in many other countries. The history of Christmas markets goes back to the Late Middle Ages in the German speaking part of Europe." from Wikipedia
The first market we went to was here in Clermont-Ferrand. There is a huge Ferris Wheel and lots of vendors selling gifts and food. Here in France, vin chaud, or hot red wine is sold to help warm chilly bodies. For the children, hot cocoa is sold. We also enjoyed the truffade, a potato and cheese dish that is served hot and is very filling. The children enjoyed churros and cotton candy, although they are not exactly French food. The lights were beautiful and the atmosphere was festive.
Next up was a road trip to Strasbourg, France; Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland for 3 very different styles of Christmas Markets.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Our Worst Christmas Tree Ever!
My children HATE our Christmas tree. I am not exaggerating! Words like "horrible", "jankie" (rhymes with yankie, means hotmess), "ugly", "worst-tree-ever" have all been used to describe our 1st French Christmas tree. I guess it all started to go down hill when we only paid 27 euros ($35) for a live tree. In the states, a live tree this size costs about $75, so this was a bargain! Of course they sell more expensive trees here in France, but why pay more?
When we first brought it home, it leaned a little, so we just rotated it in the base, secured it with the screws and it was fine. We added water to the base and 1 string of lights to the tree. One string! Yes, only one string. At 25-55 euros per string, one is really all you need. And unfortunately, we couldn't bring our lights from home since the bulbs and the voltage here is different from the US. Why didn't we buy a pre-lit tree you ask? Well, they are very expensive and besides, a live tree seemed more "French". I also wanted to add a bit of "snow" to the tree since it snows here and the look is very popular. I bought 3 cans of snow spray and sprayed away. 15 minutes and 2 open windows later, I was done applying fake snow to our real tree. The problem was that the tree did not look snowy, it just looked ashy and gray. The fake snow that was so light when first applied was quickly soaked up by our dry tree. Oh well, that's nothing a few ornaments can't fix. My children were not so optimistic.
The theme for this French Tree was Christmas Around the World. In my mind, I wanted to start a collection of ornaments from our travels around Europe that we would cherish for years. So I didn't bring any ornaments from the states. In reality that meant that until I bought new ornaments, we had a tall, ashy, dimly lit tree. I managed to purchase 14 ornaments from a sale at a local store to get us started. I decided that I wanted a multi-colored tree only decorated with balls, a departure from our usual red and gold tree with black angels theme. Now the description, "crazy peacock", was added to the list of names for the tree.
But I was not discouraged! I had a plan. On our upcoming trip to Christmas markets in France and Germany, I would purchase the most beautiful ornaments to save my tree! Well I did purchase many ornaments, from France, Germany and Switzerland. I even had a set of glassballs hand-painted with each of our names on them. The children also gave me ornaments for Christmas to help save our tree, but we all forgot one important thing. We left for 5 days to visit Christmas Markets and we did not leave water in the tree base. When we returned, needles were everywhere! If we just touched one branch, all the needles would fall off that branch! My tall, ashy, dimly lit, sparsely decorated tree, was falling apart. I finally surrendered. It was Christmas Eve and nothing could save that tree. At least I have a good start on my ornment collection!
When we first brought it home, it leaned a little, so we just rotated it in the base, secured it with the screws and it was fine. We added water to the base and 1 string of lights to the tree. One string! Yes, only one string. At 25-55 euros per string, one is really all you need. And unfortunately, we couldn't bring our lights from home since the bulbs and the voltage here is different from the US. Why didn't we buy a pre-lit tree you ask? Well, they are very expensive and besides, a live tree seemed more "French". I also wanted to add a bit of "snow" to the tree since it snows here and the look is very popular. I bought 3 cans of snow spray and sprayed away. 15 minutes and 2 open windows later, I was done applying fake snow to our real tree. The problem was that the tree did not look snowy, it just looked ashy and gray. The fake snow that was so light when first applied was quickly soaked up by our dry tree. Oh well, that's nothing a few ornaments can't fix. My children were not so optimistic.
The theme for this French Tree was Christmas Around the World. In my mind, I wanted to start a collection of ornaments from our travels around Europe that we would cherish for years. So I didn't bring any ornaments from the states. In reality that meant that until I bought new ornaments, we had a tall, ashy, dimly lit tree. I managed to purchase 14 ornaments from a sale at a local store to get us started. I decided that I wanted a multi-colored tree only decorated with balls, a departure from our usual red and gold tree with black angels theme. Now the description, "crazy peacock", was added to the list of names for the tree.
But I was not discouraged! I had a plan. On our upcoming trip to Christmas markets in France and Germany, I would purchase the most beautiful ornaments to save my tree! Well I did purchase many ornaments, from France, Germany and Switzerland. I even had a set of glassballs hand-painted with each of our names on them. The children also gave me ornaments for Christmas to help save our tree, but we all forgot one important thing. We left for 5 days to visit Christmas Markets and we did not leave water in the tree base. When we returned, needles were everywhere! If we just touched one branch, all the needles would fall off that branch! My tall, ashy, dimly lit, sparsely decorated tree, was falling apart. I finally surrendered. It was Christmas Eve and nothing could save that tree. At least I have a good start on my ornment collection!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
C'est Noel!
"C'est Noel, It's Christmas Time..."
It is the middle of December, exactly one week until Christmas and Clermont is ready for the holidays! There is a huge Christmas tree in the city center as well as a Ferris Wheel. A few blocks away, there is a christmas market with gifts, crafts, food, hot wine and music. All of the city christmas lights have been on since the first week in December. But this past sunday was the icing on the cake. It snowed! And snowed and snowed. Now being a Mississippi girl, I prefer to enjoy the beauty of the snow while staying nice and warm, so all of my pics are from the apartment windows!
Of course there are no snow days here. The children had to go to school and Preston had to go to work on Monday. Thankfully, we were prepared with snow boots, wool socks, gloves and hats. Two weeks ago we went to rent ski gear for the season at Super Besse. This is about 1 hr from where we live. We purchased snow wear then, thinking we would only need them when skiing. Well, I have worn snow boots everyday this week. I have purchased long underwear and I am drinking a lot of hot tea. Some how thinking warm thoughts is just not enough.
It is the middle of December, exactly one week until Christmas and Clermont is ready for the holidays! There is a huge Christmas tree in the city center as well as a Ferris Wheel. A few blocks away, there is a christmas market with gifts, crafts, food, hot wine and music. All of the city christmas lights have been on since the first week in December. But this past sunday was the icing on the cake. It snowed! And snowed and snowed. Now being a Mississippi girl, I prefer to enjoy the beauty of the snow while staying nice and warm, so all of my pics are from the apartment windows!
Of course there are no snow days here. The children had to go to school and Preston had to go to work on Monday. Thankfully, we were prepared with snow boots, wool socks, gloves and hats. Two weeks ago we went to rent ski gear for the season at Super Besse. This is about 1 hr from where we live. We purchased snow wear then, thinking we would only need them when skiing. Well, I have worn snow boots everyday this week. I have purchased long underwear and I am drinking a lot of hot tea. Some how thinking warm thoughts is just not enough.
Friday, December 5, 2008
The Real Housewives of Clermont-Ferrand
We are from America, France, Poland, Ireland, India, Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand.
We have lived in 6 of the 7 continents of the world.
We are Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Teachers, Engineers, Artists, Business women.
We are Wives, Sisters, Mothers, Daughters, Friends, Aunts.
We are lovers of books, cooking, art, shopping, fashion, food, good wine, sports, sewing, antiques.
We are the REAL housewives of Clermont-Ferrand!
Ok, that was a bit dramatic, but it is an accurate description of the ladies that are apart of a weekly chit-chat group that I attend. (I guess I have been watching too much RHA on the internet!) The purpose of the group is to help us improve our conversational French and English by chatting about different topics each week. For those of us that speak english, we are to speak in french and those that speak french are supposed to speak in english. We help each other with vocabulary and grammar, teaching each other as we learn. I must admit that my french is not great (yet!) and sometimes things go over my head, but I learn something every time I go.
Some of the topics have included sharing our favorite past times, earliest childhood memories, playing games and discussing the different political systems of our home countries. We have also discussed famous artist and their artwork and women in the workplace in our home countries. We share our personal experiences as well as our cultural practices. The conversations are always lively, as we all express our opinions on the various topics. This past week we shared our different Christmas traditions and celebrated with an international lunch and gift exchange.
We are also a support for one another. Most of us are living here in Clermont because of our husband's jobs. This is my first big move, but many of the ladies have been out of their home countries for several years and they have lived in many countries. We often discuss our struggles to adjust. It is fascinating that although we have differences in language and culture, we are still more alike than different. We don't agree on everything, but one thing we do agree on is as we "Chit-chat", we are not only learning French and English, but about the lives of women from all over the world.
We have lived in 6 of the 7 continents of the world.
We are Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Teachers, Engineers, Artists, Business women.
We are Wives, Sisters, Mothers, Daughters, Friends, Aunts.
We are lovers of books, cooking, art, shopping, fashion, food, good wine, sports, sewing, antiques.
We are the REAL housewives of Clermont-Ferrand!
Ok, that was a bit dramatic, but it is an accurate description of the ladies that are apart of a weekly chit-chat group that I attend. (I guess I have been watching too much RHA on the internet!) The purpose of the group is to help us improve our conversational French and English by chatting about different topics each week. For those of us that speak english, we are to speak in french and those that speak french are supposed to speak in english. We help each other with vocabulary and grammar, teaching each other as we learn. I must admit that my french is not great (yet!) and sometimes things go over my head, but I learn something every time I go.
Some of the topics have included sharing our favorite past times, earliest childhood memories, playing games and discussing the different political systems of our home countries. We have also discussed famous artist and their artwork and women in the workplace in our home countries. We share our personal experiences as well as our cultural practices. The conversations are always lively, as we all express our opinions on the various topics. This past week we shared our different Christmas traditions and celebrated with an international lunch and gift exchange.
We are also a support for one another. Most of us are living here in Clermont because of our husband's jobs. This is my first big move, but many of the ladies have been out of their home countries for several years and they have lived in many countries. We often discuss our struggles to adjust. It is fascinating that although we have differences in language and culture, we are still more alike than different. We don't agree on everything, but one thing we do agree on is as we "Chit-chat", we are not only learning French and English, but about the lives of women from all over the world.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Lauren is 10!!!!!
Today is a great day! LAUREN IMAN GRAY IS 10!!!!!! Yesterday we had a party for her during the 2 hour lunch break at home. She invited 5 friends from school. I love that she attends an international school because she has friends from all over the world including France, US, England and New Zealand. John brought one friend home for lunch so he wouldn't be the only boy!
As far as what a traditional French birthday party is like for children, I still don't know. We opted for the sweet and simple approach, a party at home. This is another good thing about the 2 hour lunch break. The parents didn't have to drop off the children and the whole party was over in 2 hours!
So far we have attended about 4 parties ranging from sleepovers, to mini horse riding lessons to a Chuck-E-Cheese type place called Kizou (think giant squirrel) to parties a home. Like I said before, the children have international friends, so the parties are not necessarily French, but they are always fun!
As far as what a traditional French birthday party is like for children, I still don't know. We opted for the sweet and simple approach, a party at home. This is another good thing about the 2 hour lunch break. The parents didn't have to drop off the children and the whole party was over in 2 hours!
So far we have attended about 4 parties ranging from sleepovers, to mini horse riding lessons to a Chuck-E-Cheese type place called Kizou (think giant squirrel) to parties a home. Like I said before, the children have international friends, so the parties are not necessarily French, but they are always fun!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Things I am thankful for
Christ Church of Auvergne
The church that we attend here in France, Christ Church of Auvergne, held a Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. There was the traditional turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans...and it was really good! This is France, so of course we had french bread! Each family brought a dessert to share. The time together with other Americans doing something so American was refreshing. We even went bowling afterwards since there was no football games to watch. I realized that I had too much to thank God for to allow such a day to go by without celebration. Thanksgiving is a fitting way to start the wonderful Christmas season, a time when the world pauses to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving came early for us this year in another way as well. On Thursday, November 20th, John became a Christian. I am so thankful to God for answering that prayer. Moving to a different country is not just about experiencing different languages, historical places and food. It also exposes you to differences in customs, beliefs and world views. My hearts desire is for my children to appreciate all cultures, but to never lose their own in the process.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
