Merry Christmas!

Christmas Market 2014

 Today was the annual Christmas market in our neck of the woods.  We, as usually, unashamedly took advantage of the free pony rides.

 And the free face painting.  Did I mention unashamedly?

 We actually shelled out the money for three tickets on the merry-go-round...

That Alina had to pedal herself!
Actually, the guy running the thing was on it pedalling, as well.  But it was in fact pedal-operated.  Happy Christmas season!

 I am very, very happy to announce that I am (practically) at the end of a very, very, very long and drawn-out sewing project.

 Anybody out there ever checked out the price of a travel harp cover?  You don't want to.  I took one look at it and thought, "Hey, I can buy a lot of material for THAT price.  So, a few months and many, many hours of work later...

 "Princess's raincoat" is finally finished.  Well, almost.  It's usable, anyway.  And, here is Princess with my princess.  Everyone DID notice the color-coordination, right?  Alina insisted on wearing The Dress the day Princess's raincoat made its first outing.  Yes, Alina and Princess went to music theory class in matching outfits.

 And here's another princess.

And yet another princess.  The tear, by the way, was because she thought I wasn't going to take her picture.  (Notice the now-naked harp in the background.)





I can finally move the sewing machine off of the counter, and maybe even pick up all the bits of red and white material off of the floor.  Just in time for sewing costumes for the school Christmas show.  Sigh.....

Tassia's First Day!

Today is back-to-school in France.  And, for us, it was Tassia's first day.  She skipped 2 years of French school, and is basically entering directly what would be the equivalent of American kindergarten.  She was more than ready! 

 Good thing we were ready early so we had some time for a photo shoot!

 This past summer, Tassia has occasionally mentioned being a little afraid.  Not, as she said, of the first part of the morning where they get to play in the classroom.  But of the actual work, which was afraid would be too hard.  I'm pretty sure she'll be fine.  This morning, I had to go track her down to kiss her good-bye before leaving her classroom.  She was already off playing!

 This is what I have left at home now:

Sybille had a petty good morning, I think, but she did say once, "It's too bad my sisters aren't here."  Now, I'm just going to have to get used to not having my tea-and-reading-in-the-afternoon buddy around anymore...

Corsica II

Ready for more beautiful Corsica pictures?  Here's one:

 One of the reasons for going to Corsica was to show the girls a bit of where their Missia is from.  So, here is the village where he grew up.  We had to drive over an hour through the mountians to get there.

 This is the church, this is the steeple...

 Thomas's dad used to take his father's goats up and down this when he was a boy.

 And the girls got to witness the very typical scene of free-roam pigs walking through the village.

Corsica 2014

I feel like I owe some sort of apology for not having blogged for a long, long time.  If I tried to play catch-up, though, this blog post would never get finished.  So, instead, here's our latest:  We just got back from a two-week trip to Corsica!  We had to drive for a day and a half to get to Nice, where we took the boat.  On the way, we saw this, the city of Carcassonne:

 From the boat, this was one of our first glimpses of Corsica. 

 Tassia was somehow very photogenic on this leg of the trip:

 Corsica must be one of the most beautiful places on earth.  It has an awesome combination of mountains:

And beach!

 We rented a house outside of Ajaccio (the main city of southern Corsica.)  From our front porch, we could see this:

 and this.

 And, out back, there was this.  Yes, there was a pony in the back yard, and we had the horrible task of visiting and feeding the pony twice a day.  The girls look like they suffered a lot, don't they?

 We took the opportunity on this trip to visit Filitosa, an important archaeological site.  In a field belonging to some acquaintances of Thomas's grandfather's, they discovered these megalithic statues carved in the shapes of warriors.  Apparently, they are some of the oldest megalithic representations of people known anywhere in the world.

 Oh, and a rock that looks like a dinosaur.

To be continued...

End of vacation

Here's our last fling of spring vacation.  Tomorrow, it's back to work for everyone!