St Nicolas' Day

The girls have been enjoying ballet classes which they started a month ago (now we are all very familiar with good toes, bad toes....) and so we arranged for them and their best friends to go to see The Nutcracker together. Such fun!


We had prepared all week by listening to the music and discussing the plot so they had a good idea what was happening, but LissaLou is truly her parents' daughter and still sat whispering (oh so loudly!) throughout, asking about or stating what was happening! They were very confused by the non-arrival of the Sugar Plum Fairy (whose dance was done by the leading character Clara) but were quite happy with our explanation that there weren't enough people to fill all the parts!Of course, the highlight for them was being treated to ice cream in the interval - thanks BFs' dad!
I would also like to give a plug for Specsavers, where I went for an appointment beforehand after perhaps six months without glasses. On hearing of my theatre attendance, the kind staff member insisted I couldn't possibly go without glasses, and whizzed them up for me in half an hour, rather than the usual three days! And all this despite him being an Arsenal fan!

Afterwards we celebrated St Nicholas' Day with our friends. I hadn't realised what a big thing this is in Holland, as all presents happen now rather than at Christmas. The girls were thrilled with their little gifts but given the rather undressed state the younger ones were in, I decided to leave out the photos! Instead, here is JoJo very much enjoying his chocolate gift and Bertie who kindly made a Caribbean dessert of fried plantain with ice cream and chocolate sauce. The main course was a traditional dutch meal of carrot and turnip (I think) with meatballs, gravy, cider vinegar and an additional mashed potato and kale dish. Delicious. And so filling!

Above - a little clue as to what the girls got...

New Year's Day

No big celebrations in our house, though we did manage to see it through to midnight, when we were able to enjoy the many fireworks of Guadeloupe out of our window. Bertie and I took the time to reflect on the questions found here by Donald Whitney, definitely worth your time to look at.

This morning I have been blessed with my SIL's camera so here for the first time in a while are some photos fresh off the press....

Our Christmas tree in all its glory - Bertie made the paper trees with the girls

A close up on some of the decorations - LissaLou painted the stocking at school and the girls and I decorated these frames. Who knows where the one of CassCass has got to...Ah, here it is, hiding away at the bottom of the tree!And under the tree is our special Christmas book box - the girls have particularly enjoyed going through the Jolly Christmas Postman this year and playing with its enclosures. I enjoyed reading The Story of Holly and Ivy to LissaLou a couple of times - no mean feat with 30 pages!Here are our Christmas cards on display in our kitchen amongst the bibs! The towels normally hang there and have been displaced for the meantime.Presents! CassCass' bible, the girls' tea set and baking set from Tatie Felicianne (with some bits gone awol!) Put in batteries and the kettle and mixer really work! Oh, and the shoes of course!
This is Baby JoJo's present, which he looks at every now and then, but is much preferred by CassCass!Not a present but I thought I would put it in anyway. The last two christmases the girls got a cot each for their dolls but we didn't bring either one with us so we did the next best thing and made one. We took the box from one of the above presents, covered it in the wrapping paper from Baby JoJo's present, got some of the white packaging stuff from Tatie Pierrette's new washing machine and covered that in an Air France blanket which someone conveniently left here, and hey presto! Baby Luke and Baby Joy are very comfortably settled in it (reminds me of Esther's twins!)

A Request Of Sorts

Well, we are into December and Christmas is very much on its way. We have brought out our Christmas books and put them in a beautifully decorated box (the result of last Saturday morning painting on the balconey). These books are only around for December so are particularly fascinating to the girls.

Here, the decorations and lights only went up in November, which feels very late really! The shops and catalogues are full of presents, our local Carrefour has Father Christmas and his reindeers outside (so odd, in the hot sun!) and a nativity scene inside (no Jesus yet - I don't think they notice that they have left him under a rock!).

A traditional Christmas activity here is Chante Nwel, which is Christmas carols Caribbean style! I don't know any of the songs but they are very cheerful and catchy, with plenty of singers in traditional madras dresses and musicians playing drums and guitars. We hope to go and see a performance one evening.

All in all, it feels much more relaxed here than at home. We are celebrating at Bertie's sister's house, and all bringing a dish. We are to get presents for the children so I think I will do books all round! I have mentally chosen the girls' presents (a French bible for CassCass from CLC and a toy or two for them both). As for cards, in France the deadline is 31 January so no hurry there! One aspect of life which is definitely less stressful here is the lack of travel as no where is much more than an hour away, meaning you don't have to allow a whole long day to visit someone, which is an integral part of our holidays back home.

So to my request - if you are being kind enough to send a card this Christmas, to save you some money, do send it to our London address. It will be forwarded to us and we don't mind receiving them late - you have until 31 January! My other request is I would love to have an up to date photo of you or your family which we can make into a collage to help us remember who all you lovely people are! (I hasten to add that is for the benefit of the younger ones, I can just about remember you!) You could just email one, but I don't think I know how to turn that into a printed one to go on my wall! Thank you very much in advance!

Other projects include putting up some decorations and a tree that are in a box in our hallway; making some decorations for the tree (I like the idea of making/getting something each year, and so this year we will decorate little carboard frames mum brought us and put our photos in them); having a special advent reading each day during the week before Christmas.

What are you up to this Christmas and what projects do you have during the remaining weeks?