Christmas day

On Christmas Eve we had a spiritual program with my family and the missionaries at my parents’ house. We sang songs and read scriptures and had a delicious dinner. We then went home and spent Christmas morning at our house.

Highlight of the day : Santa brought a Wii-U

and pocket knife to replace the one that was lost

We spent the rest of the day at my parents’ house playing petanque and enjoying an incredibly warm weather.

 William found another set of shoulders to climb on:

William scratching Grand-papa’s head: it’s a win-win situation

Christmas preparations

December 2015

Decorating gingerbread houses is not a french thing at all. I didn’t grow up doing it. But we did it with our friends in Boulder, the Gourgouris’, before we moved to France and the boys loved it. I wanted to continue the tradition here and fortunately I came across these gingerbread house kits at IKEA. This activity was a huge hit although none of us is fond of gingerbread so it took us two years to finish eating them (actually we didn’t: I stored them in a ziploc bag on top of the fridge and they stayed there for months until I finally threw them away recently). 

I said we’re not fond of gingerbread. I said nothing about candy...

Mathias came over to play with the boys. He is very tall (over 1m90cm) and William’s favorite thing to do is sit on his shoulders all day.

My sister-in-law sent us some twizzlers. Thanks Isabelle!

Josh participated in a karate tournament with his class and got first place.

Here he is with his gold medal !

 
December is also the perfect month for going ice skating. We don’t have an outdoor ice rink in Grenoble but the indoor one is great.

The school’s Parents’ association organizes a Christmas party every year. This year they booked a magician. He was incredible. The pictures didn’t turn out but we had such a great time.

This year my sister Emmanuelle asked my dad if he would let her cut a tree on the plot of land he owns in the forest up of Revel for her Christmas tree. I tagged along and we had a fun time walking around the plot looking for the perfect tree with my mom and dad.

Woodcutting is in our blood

The boys also had a christmas party during their weekly swim lesson. When they came out of the pool, they had drawings of reindeer, stars and such all over their bodies.

Also we visited the Christmas market in Grenoble. The boys rode a few rides and met Santa.

Josh got caught red-handed (quite literally)

One waffle fan, one crepe fan

A few runs down the inflatable slide

We went back to the ice-rink with my sister Rachel and her boys.

And we went to the movie theater with Grand-papa, Grand-maman and Coco to watch Star Wars The force awakens.

On Christmas eve, the entire family went caroling around the neighborhood. The boys loved being outside in the dark goofing off with their cousins.

Joshua’s seventh birthday

December  2015

Joshua, my strong, brave, bright, social, happy child had another birthday : one year wiser, one year brighter and getting more and more handsome by the day. He loves Star Wars, playing with his friends and being silly, combine all that and you get the ideal frame for a great birthday party.

The game Pie face had just hit the stores. We had a good time trying it out.

Most kids prefered to play with a wet sponge rather than whip cream

But those who chose whip cream went all in

We played the game "Heads up", where we tape the picture of a character on your forehead and you have to guess who you are by asking questions like, am I a boy? Am I a good guy?..

 We ate cake.

We did a treasure hunt in the garden, with a Darth Vader pinata holding one of the clues.

And we dug up the treasure (from a garbage bag inside the recycling container!)

This group of kids are good friends and get along well together. It is sweet to see them grow together.
Joshua was spoiled with presents and we all had a fun day. He opened his presents from the family on his actual birthday a few days later.