Hungry Hippos

Overheard tonight at dinner:

ME: Tassia, you were a hungry little hippo tonight! (Making reference, of course, to the game that happily occupied many hours of my childhood.)

ALINA: This hungry hippo went to market. This hungry hippo stayed home and made himself a tartine. This hungry hippo had roast beef. This hungry hippo had none. And this hungry hippo cried wee, wee, wee all the way home!

A White Epiphany

Greetings from snowy Melle. It's snowed twice this year. Given that it also snowed last year, this may announce the beginning of a new ice age. In any case, for a variety of factors, things have been...well...not quite shut down, but very calm here. Just as an example, I was supposed to teach 10 individual lessons today. I only had 4 students show up. On Monday after my lessons, we also had a little adventure involving our car, a steep hill, and ice. I'll spare you the details, but everyone is fine, including the car.

Today we made what will certainly be our last batch of Christmas cookies for the season. I'm marking the occasion by posting some slightly-belated Christmas pictures:

Alina's new apron, which she has already made good use of!

What you see here is Alina who made a "sandwich." She took a slice of foie gras (first course of Christmas lunch at the Constantini's house), stuck a goat cheese on top, and slapped another slice of foie gras on. The she proceeded to taste it. In case you were wondering, this must be some kind of major culinary faux pas. It didn't seem to taste very good, either.

Mobility

Dreams of a White Christmas

Alina thinks her sister is a reindeer!

It snowed here! This is a pretty unusual occurance, as I may have said last year. Schools are closed, and my lessons are cancelled for tomorrow! The only downside is that we have our church Christmas program on Sunday, and we're pretty encouraged by the people we anticipate being there. If the snow and ice don't keep them away!

Flies

Last night, I was helping Tassia finish her dinner, and Alina was already up from the table. As she was playing in the kitchen, she suddenly looked up to me and said in near-perfect French, "Tous les mouches adorent les cacahuètes." "All flies love peanuts."

I had no idea.

Eating like a Big Girl

A Photographer I am not

The girls were given matching dresses, and I figured this was a good opportunity to take some photos. Armed with my matching subjects, my camera, and a neutral background, this is the best I could come up with...