Traditional Dinner with our french friend

Our conversation partner and friend Georgette proposed that we share a traditional french dinner with her after Christmas. Sounded like fun and it was. We made too much rich food (we just went shopping for some of the food, she picked out all the dishes!) but a salad dinner tonight evened it all out...right?! Our menu was: raw oysters with lemon (I have to give those a thumbs down, but that's just me:), rye bread with butter, confiture of onions with foie gras, then Boudins (sausage looking things with a mild flavor, then roasted pintade (a little chickeny looking bird but tastes a little more like turkey, but better) with chestnuts, then traditional french candies and buche noel for dessert. Whoooooooo buddy we were stuffed. It was a workout to eat that much french food and that much protein all at once. Here are some pics of our time:

Yum!

Doing the cooking thing one handed...Louis was having a needy day.

Our pintade

Louis at the hospital

Little guy had his surgery on Monday. It was quite an experience for all but a few things made it a LOT more bearable: friends who watched our girls before and after school and made many treks (in the rain!) to take them to and from school, french friends who let us borrow their car (the hospital is in another town and doing the on foot/train/tram routine adds like 4 hours to the day), the hospital staff in the childrens' portion were super nice (except the people in the billing/"welcome" desk...ha!), and the fact that our french is a ton better than it was 5 months ago when we first talked to the dr. about having the surgery. Louis was a champ but it was still hard to see him out of it when the meds started to kick in before the surgery (and then crying as they took him away from us:(...and after the local anesthesia wore off at home he was in a ton of pain and cried all evening. Thankfully since then he's been a lot better and only is in pain when he coughs or we move him certain ways or touch the areas that are painful. So glad its over!

After the surgery (and after he finally shook off the last of the sleepy gas...while he was coming out apparently he was really crazy but Daniel was there, not me) Louis wanted to PLAY! There were a ton of toys right outside our "room" and he wanted to explore them all. He had no idea he'd just had major surgery! Since the local anesthesia was still in gear he wasn't in pain either, so while we waited the long hours until our release he played and played and played.

Here we are a few hours later almost ready to leave...mommy trying to get the boy to eat some "petite suiss" a half yogurt/half cheese like snack that french kids seem to like:). Here we're in the play room outside our room where we spent most of our time since we were sharing a tiny tiny room with another family who had a newborn with a broken leg and was trying to sleep!

Advent snowman window decor

Marianna opening the snowman window decor with Livvie watching excitedly:

Another day, Marianna opening some art supplies.

Having SO much fun decorating, and redecorating with the scene. Unfortunately Louis thought it looked way too much like his gummy vitamins at first and chewed on a few pieces. Not sure why it took so long for him to realize the taste was NOT the same.

And because I don't want to lose this link, I'll call this homemade Nyquil (Daniel's favorite med that we can't get here, I think this will be a good homemade alternative) How's that for random!?

Menu Plan

We're starting this week out all reasonably healthy...hooray! Hoping to get in two good weeks of french study before Christmas break begins since this past few months have been very sketchy with health issues and all. Here's to hopin'! Here's what's on our menu this week:

Monday: Chicken veggie potato soup in the crockpot, with leftover crackers and muffins (after our long day traveling to and from the hospital)

Tuesday: Fettucini Carbonara, green beens

Wednesday: Chicken in the crockpot

 Thursday: School Christmas Party (bring taco dip maybe?)

 Friday: Pizza

 Sat: Hamburgers, homefries, raw veggies

Hoping to do a little baking with the girls at some point this week to give to our neighbors etc., but we'll see how time pans out....

What's on your menu this week?

Advent & Coziness

Here are the kiddos after decorating the Christmas tree last week:

All snuggled up watching our new favorite french show that teaches us how things work in france (for example how potatoes grow, how candies are made)

The girls opening their first advent gift, which wasn't my original plan, but I decided to wrap a different small gift, activity (make cookies for example), video, book, etc. for each day of advent. We do that in addition to reading a Desiring God advent reading every night by the tree. Oh, the gifts and activities are almost all courtesy of my parents who sent a huge box of goodies...silly and practical last week...thanks!

The first gift they opened were two sticker workbooks: mickey and princess. They were pretty excited!

Baby Shower!

Who knew that baby showers are not a normal part of the culture in France? Not us. My friend Jenise threw one for our mutual french friend and it was wonderful. All the french ladies there (plus one husband and a number of kids who showed up!) were surprised that Americans had these, but thought it was a fun idea. Thanks for a fun afternoon Jenise:)!. My favorite part though, apart from the great food and fun fellowship (and lots of french conversation practice) was holding the baby girl (Malou...so cute!) for a LONG TIME. I love newborn babies and she was so sweet. I am lucky I don't have babies as content and "sage" as they say here because I would totally have been Mrs. Duggar #2 with 20 babies. But alas, mine cry constantly and seem to sleep badly and whine all the time until they are 4 so that takes care of that problem I guess;).

The lovely mommy (her first girl after 4 boys!) and the gracious hostess:

I'll just have to hold others' babies until I have my own grandbabies I guess...of which there are a crazy lot right now... I think 6 or so of my friends just had babies this last month...crazy times!

Marianna got to go too and be a BIG girl. She did well. I had no idea there would be so many other kids there, so that helped. Yes, I still have the baby. I gave the stink-eye to anyone who tried to come over and take a turn;).