the weekend

Our weekend consisted of a Friday night away-game, an early Saturday morning return (as in four-thirty am early) and a Sunday evening date.  The game was a big win and Billy came home with a huge bouquet of flowers and a bottle of Champagne for being the Man of the Match.  Hooray Bill!  

  

On Sunday night, Billy and I went to see a movie!  In English.  The second since Jake was born and it was such a nice evening.  What a treat.  We happily went to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and were so lucky that Kaytie and Jake offered to babysit for us!  It turned out to be a long movie, and we didn't get home until midnight; which truthfully, is the latest I've been out in ages.  

All-in-all, a great weekend. 

cozy and warm

Jake is modeling his sweet Christmas present.  A cozy new sweater from Aunty Nora and Uncle Rob.  Oh how we love it!  And Jake does too, big smiles in his big boy sweater.  

It is the perfect timing for a cozy sweater here.  We are having our first real cold-spell, temperatures in the minus!  -1 to be exact but there is talk we might get to -10 by the end of the week.  We have our fingers crossed for a little snow.  

an artist

Jake has been a happy little artist these days.  It started out with very little interest that primarily consisted of telling us what color to use and making us draw thousands of stars (which goes something like this: "dar, dar, dar, dar, DAR, dar, DAAR...!").  

Now he likes to color all on his own and even tries his own stars.  How fun!  It is an especially nice break from "hockey, hockey, hockey..."  And as a happy result, he's mastered all the names of the colors. 

We haven't exactly figured out how this sweet, funny little man manages to say hockey clear-as-day, but not star.  All a matter of priority, I guess. 

friends again

Jake and the bath are friends again, finally  Yay, bath time!  We seem to go through drastic stages where bath time is just about the worst thing he could possibly be forced to endure.  Will this bath time joy last?  We sure hope so.  Boy, do I ever love that sweet, squeak-clean and soapy smelling boy.  

 

 

oreo chocolate chip cookies

What could be better then a cookie in a cookie?!  Not much, so these are definitely worth a try.  We really enjoyed them.  I found this recipe, along with a bunch more delicious ones on pinterest.    

Note: I decreased the amount of chocolate chunks slightly, so feel free to add more if necessary.  Also, make sure to keep the Oreo chunks rather large, not crushed.      

You will need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup milk, semisweet, or dark chocolate chips (whatever your preference)
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups Oreo cookies broken into chunks (about 10-12 Oreos)
……………………………………..
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line your cookie sheet with parchment.

Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together and set aside.

Mix the sugars and melted butter just until thoroughly mixed, add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy. Add the sifted ingredients and mix until just blended – don’t over beat!

Gently stir in the Oreo chunk, chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies and heat of your oven. The edges of the cookies should just start to be turning golden.

Let cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, remove the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

oh joy

A baby on the way!

We could not be more filled with joy
and could not feel any luckier. 

We will welcome this new little addition to
our family in June and can barely wait.  We are
half-way there and it still feels like an unbelievably
long wait.  And really it is, still 138 days to go!

 Baby at 12 weeks and measuring 6cm long.  

on the ice

A few weeks ago a team member organized a skate for the players and their families.  The ice was scheduled in the morning, right after a long road-trip.  I figured that no one would want to stay and skate but everyone stayed and came out onto the ice.  All the kids, wives and girlfriends got free rentals and they had pastries, sandwiches and Champagne for us to snack on.  (we've learned that it is never too early for Champagne here in France).

Jake had the time of his life out there and we couldn't even drag him onto the bench for a snack without protest.  He kept saying "net, net, goal".  Thankfully we remembered his stick and he played pass with some of the players and scored a few goals too.  What fun.  

It didn't take long before Jake was full-on running around the ice.  

We couldn't slow him down.  But don't worry, 

Billy was always by his side. 

Visiting mom on the bench.  

Even dogs were allowed, and little Jin chased pucks around. 

little goals for the new year

I've never really been one for new year resolutions.

So this year I thought I would try something a little different.

Little resolutions or goals for each month.

 So here they are:

JAN make smoothies for snacks and lunches |  FEB make something crafty |  MAR go to the zoo |  APR relax and get a facial |  MAY plan weekly dates for Billy and I |  JUN take evening walks |  JUL go cherry picking |  AUG spend mornings at the beach |  SEP make a layer cake |  OCT read two (or more) books |  NOV make homemade soups |  DEC drink tea. lots of tea.

happy new year

Welcome to 2012.  

Hope it brings much happiness and joy 

to all our family and friends. 

Our new year's eve was first spent at a French party with some friends.  Thanks to Emilie it included gold sparkles in our hair and homemade macrons from Laure as well.  There was also lots of champagne (12 bottles) and delicious appetizers! We even tried escargot wrapped in tiny pastry cups with a garlic, butter and basil sauce.  And they were actually quite good.  

Then we came home at 11:30 to ring in the new year with Kait, who was home with a cold and babysitting little Jake.  We picked the funniest/worst song we could find on our itunes and did our own countdown.  It was really nice to spend it with family (even though she was drinking cough syrup instead of wine).  

We couldn't be more excited about 2012! 

(Unrelated note: Do I ever wish this typewriter were mine.  I am going to be on the hunt for one this spring.  I would love nothing more than to send out little hand-typed notes and hear the clicking
away of those old keys.)    

image via UrbanComfort

château de chantilly

Not nearly as grand as Versailles, but opulent nonetheless with its bold reds, gilded walls and crystal chandeliers.  I'm sure the grounds and gardens would be so beautiful in the springtime but we opted to stay warm inside the château.  

Jake decides to look at the camera!  

A first in a very long time.

 

Oh, what a library!  

 

This is what the grounds look like from above

image via francemagazine.org

tour eiffel

Kait and I saw a lot of Paris in our two days, but always memorable is the Eiffel Tower.  It is more magnificent in person then you would ever imagine, even more so when you think of how it was constructed in the late 1800's.  Made from 7,300 tonnes of iron into such a wonder and forever changing the Paris horizon.  

We went early, before opening, and stood in the long winding line-up in the cold December air.  We smartly picked the elevator queue, instead of walking-up the 700 stairs to the second platform.  Once up, the air was even cooler and wind bolder but we took advantage of the height and viewed Paris from above; the grey slate rooftops and golden monuments stretching out into the horizon.   

The view from the elevator on the way down.  

 The day was cold, the tower so immense and we felt awfully 

lucky to be there.  

kate and jake

A sunny day at the church here in December made for a nice afternoon.  Peaceful just before Christmas.  Jake likes to run around in the big courtyard and say "church" "church".  We couldn't go inside though, they were busy preparing for midnight mass.  

catch-up

This blog has been woefully neglected during the holidays.  We were just so busy visiting, relaxing, snuggling and reading.  It was a wonderful holiday and we were so happy to spend it with Aunty Kaity.  Jake took full advantage of the extra attention!  

And boy do we miss having her here.   

Now I've got to sort through all the pictures and play a little catch-up.