merry christmas

Wishing all of our family and friends, near and far, a very merry Christmas!  We hope that your day is filled with love and joy, cozy pajamas, warm drinks and turkey.  

Thinking of you all. 

cookie party

Yesterday we had some of the kids over to decorate cookies and had such a fun morning! There were sweets galore - cookies and sprinkles and icing and hot chocolate. I tried to sneak in a few healthy items too - grapes and cheese and Christmas oranges - but the cookies 

were the star attraction.

Jacob was more into cookie eating than decorating and munched around with his little sticky fingers all coated in sprinkles. Our French friends haven't ever decrated Christmas sugar cookies and 

were pretty impressed.

These eggnog sugar cookies are my favorite for the holiday's and I make them every Christmas.  

 Before

After

Just look at these cute cookies!

The big kids hard at work

While the three little ones make good use of the toys

How pretty are these cookies one of the Czech mom's brought over!?

christmas choir

I'm happy to say that Jake shares my love of Christmas music, hooray!  Every morning after breakfast he says "dance, dance" and drags me by the hand to the computer, which is my signal to start the Christmas music.  Then he bobs and dances around.  What could possibly be better!?

If you need something to get you into the Spirit of Christmas, all you need to do is follow this link.  My lovely friend Alyse shared it with me and and we are so thankful.  It is the Fargo-Moorhead Master Chorale.  It couldn't be any more beautiful!  Perfect for cozy evenings, cookie baking and hot chocolate sipping.

When each song ends, Jake stops whatever it is he's doing and claps along with the audience.  He is a fan.

château de pierrefonds

We visited the Castle of Pierrefonds last week and marveled at the fact that it was first built in the Middle-ages.  The castle was originally built in the 12th Century, upgraded in 1393, ruined in war and then bought by Napoleon in the 1800's and restored.  It was huge and imposing and impossible to imagine how they built it so many years ago. 

As we walked through the castle's great stone rooms, I couldn't help but imagine how much work it would have taken to keep a castle warm in the winter!

family skate

We all went to the rink with Billy for the team's family skate.  Even though Bill didn't skate, Jacob got to play with hockey sticks, run around the dressing room and take a skate around the arena with Jake and Kaytie.  We all had a lot of fun.   

 

 

 

brussels

Christmas lights, crepes, chocolates, beautiful gilded buildings and a little light rain.  That was what filled our day in Brussels, Belgium.  The city was so festive and the Christmas market packed.  I was in search of wooden Christmas decorations, like the ones we've seen in Germany and Austria, but this market was instead all about food and gifts.  We enjoyed browsing the stalls while Billy rested 

his injured muscles.  

The streets were littered with beautiful little chocolate boutiques and decked out for the holiday season.  We coudn't resist bringing some Belgium chocolates home with us.  

o christmas tree and sinterklaas

We put up our tree and some decorations with Graham while listening to Christmas carols and sipping hot chocolate.  Our place is now looking warm and festive.  Jake thinks the tree is great; he loves the lights and thankfully hasn't been terrorizing any of the ornaments.  

Of course we tried to take a group picture in-front of the tree, but Jake wasn't in a cooperative mood.  I couldn't get a single shot of his sweet little face.  He is in constant motion and isn't about to 

pause for the camera. 

Then we cut, strung and hung snowflakes to make a snowflake curtain.  They make for a really festive and beautiful window. 

And happy birthday Saint Nicholas.  

This morning everyone woke-up with some treats in their shoes.  Something we've been doing since living in the Netherlands. 

bûche de noël

This was an impulse buy at the grocery store a couple of days ago!  And it turned out to be such a tasty dessert.  So what is Bûche de Noël?  It is a traditional Christmastime dessert here in France that is made from a very thin sponge cake.  It's then frosted with chocolate, coffee or caramel buttercream, rolled-up into a log, frosted again on the top and textured to resemble bark.  It symbolizes the yule log and when you cut into it, the rolled-up cake looks like tree rings.  They are often decorated with powdered sugar to look like snow, 

tree branches and fresh berries.  How sweet!

(Note that the box says: pastry, cream and butter.  Sold.)

 It was so good that I went out and bought another.  Chocolate this time, so we could enjoy it with Graham.

I will be sure to make this long after we leave France and add 

it to our Christmas traditions.