9 Years Old.

For Jonah’s birthday I took him skiing - for his first time. It’s something that he’s wanted to do for years - but I could never justify back home. Either skiing on such a small local hill, or making the trek to the mountains just to learn.  Here we drove a little further up the mountain that we live on - and spent a few hours in the sunshine with the temperature hovering around zero.  It was great - and he learned very quickly.  He pretty much hasn’t stopped asking to go back since.

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The following is from Jonah:

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It was so fun. “Hey dad when can I go skiing again”?.

Noël

Christmas was quite different for us this year. Instead of gathering like we normally do with dozens of family and friends on the 24th, 25th, and often the 26th (which usually spills over into the 27, then Jonah’s birthday on the 28, which is followed by 2 days off, then New years eve…) - we were at home with just the five of us.  On Christmas Eve we went to a fairly laid-back service at at french church, then came home and had Raclette for supper (melted cheese on potatoes..mmmm)  By the time we finished supper it was well after 8:00, so the kids each had a gift from friends which they opened, and were in bed well before 10.

The kids each had one present to open on Christmas morning - plus a game to share.  The difference between this and other years where they often seem to get so much more is that this year they seemed to have actually appreciated what they got, and played with their new toys; lots.

We spent the day at home, went sledding in our yard, played with new toys, went sledding down a bike trail that turned out to be quite long/steep/rock-filled/fun. Then we had supper at home, just the five of us.  Although it was especially different, and quite an adjustment for the kids, in some ways it was nice to have a quiet time at home just sharing Christmas as a family.

Christmas ended up being very relaxing, and a great time for us to be together as a family.  Just what we were hoping for.

It’s a Christmas Miracle!

I’m not sure what’s a bigger Christmas miracle: the fact that we woke up the morning of Dec 24th to a beautiful snowfall (started in the night - forecasting up to 30cm at higher elevations) or the fact that the snow tires that I started trying to get over a month ago  - arrived the day before yesterday - and were installed yesterday.  Bring it on.

We were already out sledding this morning (we’ve learned now that helmets and goggles are in order as there are a lot of bushes/trees/stumps/rocks/fence posts to try and dodge)  - and by this afternoon our tracks are almost covered over again. It’s been sunny all week - with quite a bit of rain - so it looked like it was going to be a green and muddy Christmas - but now everything is covered in a thick, thick blanket of snow.  So far we’ve spent today playing games, sledding, watching Christmas shows and watching the snow fall outside.

Les vacances ont commencé

Today is the first ‘school day’ that the kids aren’t going to school - so it feels like the first real day of les vacances de Noël.

We got snow again last week - so the kids had a snow-covered school yard complete with snowmen and forts for the last week of school.  The nice thing about snow here is that the temperature is (at least for us) very mild, which means the snow is actually sticky enough to build with, and kids come inside because they’re too hot and tired instead of too cold.

These pictures are from picking up the kids on Friday - we wanted to get some pictures of their school yard when it was all decorated. Micah missed the last week of school due to a fever. We were however quite relieved when we took him to the doctor and found out it that it was not Scarlet Fever - which has been going around the school, and a few kids in his class had over the past few weeks.  He was able to go to school on Friday when we picked up the others just so he could give his Maîtress  a present. (In case you were wondering why he looks all glassey-eyed and slightly startled standing in front of the tree in his classroom - it was pretty much the first he had been vertical in a few days)

The Tree is UP.

Last week we got ourselves a tree.   Since we live up in the French alpes - surrounded by forests on virtually every side - we got our tree in the manner that you would expect - we drove to IKEA and bought it.   (seriously - they were €20  - and if you  bring it back to be mulched after, they give you €19 back!)

It seems strange to have a tree that’s actually shaped like a tree - instead of one that’s been groomed to be shaped perfectly like an artificial-tree-triangle like we’ve grown accustomed to over the past nummer of years.

We bought a set of lights - and a few ornaments - and put up the decorations that the kids made at school.  The amazing thing is that the kids didn’t mention anything about “the other decorations” or seem to notice that anything was that strange. The only thing that seemed to matter was that we looked back over old pictures to see whose year it was to put the star on the top. (I am only going to be strong enough to keep up this tradition for so many years!)

In some ways we have really enjoyed this Christmas as it has seemed to be a really good opportunity to reset our expectations as a family for what the season really is about. Not once have we been in a mall playing holiday songs as there are thousands of people spending piles of cash on presents for others merely because it’s what is expected. We haven’t had any busyness of events, parties, pageants, etc.    The school our kids go to had a small Christmas celebration last week. As it’s a Catholic school, it was in the village church - and it was really a service more than a play or a performance.

One of the goals we had in moving over here was for our family to be able to be able to draw closer together and to refocus on the things that we think are important - and our experience of the Christmas season so far has been just that.

It’s beginning to look a lot LESS like Christmas

As of Monday - our snow started leaving us…fast. It’s been 10 - 16 above for the last few days - and with the rain, it almost seems as if it left as fast as it came

The only snow that’s left is along the road where there just a few days ago was waist deep piles left by the plows, if there happens to be a really shady spot somewhere.

Last week we couldn’t get the kids down to the village for their activities because we were snowed in. This week, they were running around outside in t-shirts after rock-climbing.

This afternoon we all took a break from our homework (it’s a strange bonding experience for me to be doing my homewok as well) and went for a hike.

It was beautiful, and sunny - and a lot of fun - especially if you like a little bit of mud (which, not surprisingly, our kids do)

Alpine Winter

Last Saturday was our first taste of Alpine winter. The kids spent all morning sledding down the hill in our yard. There was tonnes of snow and it was beautiful and warm out. Saturday was also the Marché de Noel in our village. We walked down the hill (as we had to abandon our car there the night before as we couldn’t get up the hill) and went and had a look around. We had some Vin Chaude with some friends we met there, bought the kids crafts from the little booth their school had (buying your own kids crafts seems like child-labour taken UP a notch) and a wreath for the door. Then we came home, had lunch, and it was back to the sleds. It’s pretty handy to be able to literally step out of the door, onto a sled, and down the hill.

By the way - the music is by the talented Junkyard Poets - check them out: www.junkyardpoets.com They are some young guys from back home - that have played in our church a number of times - both as a group & with other musicians. Have a listen.

SNOW!

Overnight last thursday we got our first snow. 10cm (about 2.5 acres for you Americans) when we woke up.  It wasn’t that cold (at least for us) so the kids were out a LOT. When Nathan got here we were almost snowed in.  We went for a walk up towards ‘Le Pony Club’ and watched some kids have riding lessons in the snow.  By yesterday it was pretty much all gone from our house (combination of the kids sledding it into oblivion, and melting)

It started snowing again yesterday evening - and by 9:00 (approx. 15:00 in Imperial)   this morning we’ve got 20cm (that’s bout 4 fathoms) more!  It’s still coming down really hard - so we’ll see how much we end up with. The nice thing is that it’s not so cold that you can’t go out and play …so that’s where the kids are right now.  We didn’t even attempt to get down to the village for their gymnastics & rock climbing today - our road hasn’t been plowed yet - and I actually haven’t even heard one car (that’s about 0.3 US cars)  on it so far.