The Kings Cake!

One of my most favorite things about living in different places around the world is taking on different cultural traditions, like the King's Cake! Early January marks the time when where the wise men went to visit Jesus and took their gifts to him. So, we have the "Kings Cake" (Galette des Rois)!!

At EVERY bakery and store in France, they have rows of these specific cakes and on them have little paper crowns. A friend brought us one and it had 2 crowns, and so this means there are 2 surprises inside!
So, my teacher taught us... how the French "do" the Kings Cake. The youngest child in the room gets under the table that the cake is being served on. (Under the table so not to see which piece is being cut). The mother (or whoever) cuts the first piece and asks who each piece goes to. (First piece goes to dad, second to sister.... etc. or whoever the child chooses.) In each cake there is 1 (or more) little pieces (token like figures). Whoever has the token in his piece gets to wear the hat and is "KING!" Our kids loved it... (granted, they just wore the hats), but as they grow, we'll have to do the normal tradition!

This is (part) of our cake... but it was basically this in a circle!
This is one of the little tokens in our cake! (Plastic wise man)

Top 10 Favorite Pics of 2011

So I started going through pictures the other day and looking at all that 2011 held for our family. So many changes, unexpected happenings, life turns... and it's fun to catch it on the camera. I wish I could post a Top 100 photos...

Most of these pics would not qualify as a "great picture", but for me... it's what's behind the picture. What was going on, and the treasured memory it holds. Not in any particular order... here are my top 10 favorite pics of 2011...

Stephen telling Sadie Mac about the cross (Albertville, France)

Noah starting to eat solid food... and making a mess (Boone, NC)

Fun family times at a 3D film (Atlanta, GA)
Planting a garden with my mom ("Our Yellow House", NC)
The Cascade Waterfalls with Grandma and Poppie (The Blue Ridge Pkwy)
Noah, catching some shade (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
My two treasures (my heart will always smile at this pic)... (Boone, NC)
Daddy and his princess at her 3rd birthday party... (Valle Crusis, NC)
An amazing sunrise (near Albertville, France)
God's amazing creation (France)

Christmas Morning!

We have a family tradition to read the Christmas Story in Luke 2 with our families before we go out and open presents. We had a special time this year because we were doing it with our friends AND they had a really cool nativity to play with as we talked about the story! Each child opened a piece of the story (Mary/Joseph/Jesus)... (the Shepherds/angel)... (wise men) as the part of the story was read. We really enjoyed doing this and it was good to help keep the kids focused on the real meaning of Christmas!

The kids waiting at the door way as we got all the last minute things set up... "can we come now? can we come now?"
Stocking FUN...Sadie Mac's "Rapunzel hair"!

In the afternoon we went to a park that is near their house and enjoyed playing and taking pics...
Zip line, that even Noah tried! ;-)

Bubbles!

Two little princess friends
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas like we did!

An Italian Christmas

Being away from family during the holidays can be hard. Skype and pictures on Facebook can be great... but it can also remind you how far far away we really are. We have some friends who we have known since before we were married. We were there the day they had their first child and have walked through life many transitions together... through the good and hard.

Well, we're blessed that God has placed these friends just two hours away from us... in Italy. We feel like they are our family-away-from-family. We all understand what it's like to like to live in 4 different countries in 3 years... what it's like to have babies where they don't speak English... the joys and trials of living overseas... (even if it is in France or Italy)... and we're thankful we can be so close.

They live in Torino (Turin) Italy and so we were able to see some sights in their town one day.

Sadie Mac running from Micah in one of the town squares
A large art stage in the center of town with Christmas decorations and a large nativity
Our 5 kiddos in front of the nativity
Stephen counting with the kids the metro stops until "ours"

Merry Christmas... 2011

From our family to yours...

Some of Our Christmas Crafts

I have mentioned before that I'm trying to be a crafty mom for my little treasures. Sadie LOVES projects and so I'm learning more ideas, things to use, and how to engage my children in the real meaning of Christmas. So... this year as my project portfolio grows, here are a few things we have done to get ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus!! Some are Christ centered (our goal...) and others are just ideas I found.

Here are my two little angels (and their coffee filter wings glued onto milk bottles)... all "blinged up" with stars and stickers!
The angel appeared (to the Shepherds) and the Glory of the Lord shown around them... Lk2:9
Fun ornament making... (thank you KG for your recipe)!!

1 C. applesauce + 1 C. cinnamon + 1 tsp. glue... roll out into 1/4 inch thickness... cookie cutters or trace hands. Cook on low temp or let dry for a week.


More ornament making... which is better to decorate, or eat the decorations? (These ornaments are cookies, thank you IKEA)

Christmas wreath made of my favorite little hands
Playing Nativity with play mobile figurines
Colored nativity glued onto a pizza cardboard circle
Face painting (at a friend's house)...

Snow Finally Comes to the Alps!!

After weeks (seemingly) of rain we were thrilled that we could finally put our snowflake stickers on our calendar! And it was the perfect snow... a little wet, good for packing... but not too wet so it was still fun to play in. Yesterday and today Sadie Mac had adventures playing out in it.

Snow Angels!!!
Fashions her little snowman very carefully...
Then kicks him over in one swoop!

We learned to make and throw snowballs (our favorite part of the day!!!)
We even saw some other snowmen that were about her size that she wanted to sit on! We had a great day!!!
All the while Noah was at home eating smurfs!

Christmas Parade... Lighting the City Lights!

Everybody loves a good Christmas parade! I was excited l to be able to take Sadie Mac and have a special (surprise) friend join us from out of town!! It was really neat as the parade brought in by music, bubbles, stick-men, Père Noël himself (!!) and fire breathers... (which Sadie continues to talk about all the time!). These festivities all led up to the lighting of the town lights! (In all actuality, this part took too long for us and we headed home before the lights came on! Long day + tired mom with toddler on her shoulders= short night of festivities!) We had a great time... enjoying the cold of winter here in France and all the festivities that go with it.

The man that breathes fire!!!!
"Stick-men" (on stilts!)

Père Noël so close we can touch him!!


*Special thanks to my friend who took the pics and let us use them!!!