Christmas Wishes and a Belated Pause in Advent

Merry Christmas to you all! We have had a lovely first few days of the holidays, with a flurry of tidying, cooking and dog-walking all culminating in the traditional decoration of our living Christmas tree, fresh in from the garden, to the sounds of Carols from Kings.

 

The poor tree, already battered from living in a pot in the south of France when it is really an inhabitant of northern climes, also has to contend with a large and adventurous kitten this year. Ben had the idea of decorating it with scented things - dried citrus fruit, chillis and star anise, all of which seem to be quite repellant to Wilson the tree-climber. However, we've had one or two close calls with other decorations already... all breakable ones are on the mantelpiece or tucked away for a year.

With relation to my Last Straw post, below, no, Mags, I never came near to my own last straw, but thanks for asking! We divided up the tasks between us - I took on the house tidying and cleaning, the boys committed themselves to checking, sorting and putting up the decorations, and Ben has very nobly stayed in the kitchen for three days producing seasonal and everyday food. Wonderful man!

Have your own, wonderful, Christmas. God bless you all.

5 wonderful things... times 10!

I think this is doomed to be a pictureless post - Blogger and my laptop are not playing nicely together tonight...

What a lovely holiday it's been. Like most of the rest of the northern world, we're back to school today, and that's been hard - both boys have been as healthy as something really healthy, but have come home with a general sense of back-to-school-itis tonight (still, they've done their homework, so I can't say they're playing it up too much). A look back over the holidays is well worth it for us, as we all agree it's been a super festive season. Here's a little set of highlights:

5 foods eaten:

• Mince pies
• Capon
• Christmas pudding
• Salmon
• Galette des Rois

5 films watched:

• Brave
• Star Trek (the latest re-launch - we liked it!)
• Monster House
• Super 8
• The Pirates (in an Adventure with Scientists)

5 books read by boys:

• Calvin and Hobbes
• Calvin and Hobbes
• Calvin and Hobbes
• Calvin and Hobbes
• Calvin and Hobbes

5 quotes endlessly repeated:

• 'Star trekin' across the universe...'
• 'How do you know you like it if you won't even try it?'
• 'It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.'
• 'A prince does not leave his bow on the table!'
• 'It's worse than that, it's physics, Jim!'

5 gifts given to me (or us):

• An up-cycled bracelet (more on that when the photos work again!)
• A macaron recipe book and baking sheet
• A DVD of the History of Ancient Britain
• A fruit drier
• A mobile phone I can keep my diary on

5 exercises tried out by boys:

• Cycling
• Walking
• Weights
• Getting well and truly stuck in mud puddles
• Attempted wrestling father to the ground (no actual success at this...)

5 games played:

• Lego Star Wars
• Skylanders
• Spore
• Keep-the-dog-out-of-the-kitchen
• Indoor firework displays

5 families at our 'between the festivals' party:

• An English family from our town
• A French family from our town
• A French family from Ben's work
• A French friend from Ben's work (whom I teach!)
• Our own family!

5 major things sorted:

• Cobwebs attacked even in the highest corners of our barn-like ceiling
• Donated wardrobe in Son 1's bedroom finally put up, to hold ski-wear and all the things that never had a home before
• Weekend list of chores for boys including changing their own bedding (phew, phew, phew!)
• Couronne des Rois baked and eaten
• Time to do my cuttings scrapbooks - for the first time in about a year!

1 thing started and yet to be finished:

• Making clothes washing liquid out of ashes (watch this space, it's currrently straining)

It's been a lovely holiday. I'm ready for the return to work... almost.

Christmas 2012

We had a lovely Christmas - thanks for your kind greetings!

Ben decorated the cake, although I wrapped the chocolate parcels! Ben also cooked a delicious capon from our friends and neighbours who farm across the stream from us - he was busy in the kitchen while the boys and I laid the table and generally pottered. In the evening we took Raja for a walk around the Coulée Verte in the dark - a lot of fun with torches!

As I took part in this Christmas challenge, run by Kelly who now blogs here, I thought it would be a good idea to run a quick 'bilan' (assessment, usually of costs) of our 'less spend' Christmas. We didn't buy any wrapping paper, but I did buy a few cards, which isn't like me. We'd missed out on sending any cards at all over the last two years, and I really wanted to keep in touch with friends and family who might be feeling forgotten. We made jams and jellies, dried chilis from the garden, and created Christmas decorations and shopping bags as gifts. I bought some books second hand and one new but reduced. We supported the school fund-raising by buying boxes of organic (but unfortunately not fair trade) choclotates as gifts, and gave the niece and nephews fair trade chocolate bars to go with their vouchers. We did the Sakado project which involved me and the boys buying various gifts and necessities for homeless people, and donating the filled rucksacks to an organisation which gave them out in the centre of Toulouse last week. That was a good feeling. The boys wrote personalised messages to the men who would receive the rucksacks, and I was really proud as they overcame their aversion to anything that looked like 'work', writing a message that would make the recipient realise that someone cared for them.

For internal consumption, our capon was expensive but worth it, for taste, for low carbon footprint, and for supporting local, friendly commerce. We bought the rest of our food using vouchers and careful attention to supermarket's special deals in the weeks running up to Christmas. I suppose we saved at least 40€ that way, which is just over what the capon cost! We did spend out on family Christmas presents, but aimed mainly for things that were really needed/will come in handy over the next year - Son 1 gave Ben books on Spain, where we intend to holiday, Ben bought us all a fruit drier (more on that in future) and I got the boys cycle computers, camping gear etc. I then splashed out on a CD for each of the males - Adele, Birdy and Emili Sandé, because we have all been enjoying great British female singers on French radio this year! The rest of the gifts were second hand books and DVDs which I picked up in charity shops and on the fabulous For Sale, Swap, Wanted and Giveaway in Toulouse and Surrounding Area Facebook page. And the most appreciated/most used gifts I gave? Four Calvin and Hobbes cartoon books from the Stockbridge Shelter Charity Bookshop... The whooping and cackling continues...

A very merry Christmas, and a belated Pause in Advent

Oh, life takes over again..! But only in a good way:

The last part of my Essence of Christmas is, of course, Jesus. Can you spot him there, in among our Sunday School children and teachers? We had a 'global' themed nativity this year...

If you're a Christian, having Jesus as the main 'ingredient' of Christmas is a bit obvious. If you're not a Christian, I hope that you didn't stop reading straight away - I'm rather conscious myself of the alienating nature of faith blogging. I personally feel more at home in a very mixed blogging world, where we share our differences as much as our similarities. Rather like our church, don't you think? Happy Christmas to all of you. It's been a lovely year.

A Christmas Treasure Hunt

I had a quick look round Truffaut yesterday - one of those garden centres which has become so much more... and which is a glittering wonderland at Christmas!

It's ever so pretty, and although quite expensive you can even find British Christmas crackers there sometimes, so worth a look.

Every year they do different colour themes and concepts.

Have a look and see which one you like best!

So, the treasure hunt of my title is a little game I like to play on my own, every Christmas.

I call it: 'Hunt the baby Jesus'!

Now, this isn't a complaint that Jesus isn't more at the centre of Christmas in France.

After all you can't say: 'Christ is the centre of Noël' in the same way as: 'Christ is the centre of Christmas', can you? There's no reason for the secular French state to be expected to mention Jesus, or Christian things at all. In fact, there's every reason for a secular state to celebrate a secular winter festival, isn't there? I'm not complaining and I hope that I'm not triggering a set of complaining comments - in the UK and the US Christmas is a lot LESS secular than in France, let me tell you!

So my personal 'hunt the baby Jesus' is just that - personal. And of course, I did find him, among the traditional Provençal santons. I'm glad he's there. And he needs to be personal. He's not State Business, and we can't legislate for him to be in shops, or in hearts.

 

So, what do you think, and which colour/concept would YOU choose? You can answer either the sacred or the secular question, here..!

A Pause in Advent, 2012

Some sweet people (in the USA, Britain and France) have expressed the hope that we'll be doing the Pause in Advent again this year - thank you so much to them for keeping the thought going while I'm so busy! The answer is yes, I will be delighted to host this four-week event again, where you are invited to post every Sunday or Monday in Advent, on any subject of your choice that helps us to think about the quieter, calmer aspects of getting ready for Christmas. Please see any of my posts in previous Decembers for examples, and let me know if you'd like to get involved this year! I'm so busy teaching that I may only manage the once-a-week posts, but I think I'll need those Pauses to take a moment to reflect on what Advent and Christmas should mean to me. Will you join us, please?

A little French mince pie!

Some years ago I baked mince pies for Ben's work Christmas Do. Only the older French people eat them (don't you think young people are so conservative?) but they are generally appreciated - and on this one occasion one of Ben's colleagues was a particular fan - they reminded her of a speciality of the town where she grew up! A French mince pie? Remarkable.This week she came back from a visit to her hometown and gave Ben a little package from the Boulangerie Molière - six petits pâtés de Pézenas. They are the bobbin-shaped, sweet-sour tarts for which this Mediterranean town is known.

We knew from our discussion years back that these pies are more like the mince pies of Olde England - they have mutton and beef in them as well as dried fruit, spices and lemons. And they aren't reserved for Christmas.

We warmed them up and ate them with a raw veg salad (thinking of Serenata!)...They were great! The mutton is really strong, which is an unusual taste for a modern Brit, but the overwhelming flavour of sucrée-salée is just like that of a mince pie. I knew there had to be some English connection - perhaps from the Middle Ages, when Crusaders came back with the original dried fruit/sweet and sour recipes? It turns out that the connection is much more recent, and is Anglo-Indian, rather than Middle Eastern. Lord Clive, the Governor of India, spent some time in Pézenas, and used to give soirées where the main delicacy was these little meat tarts. On leaving the town he gave them the gift of his recipe! This all dates to 1768 - what a lovely French/British/Indian connection we have unwittingly linked in to...If you'd like to know more about this delightful cardinal bird, and, more specifically about how we're going to be thinking our way through the Cardinal Virtues in Lent, please check out the post below.

Christmas in three countries

Happy 6th Day of Christmas, friends! I've set myself the challenge of recording our Christmas using three photos from each country - so here goes... We started Christmas week at home in France. Père Noël travels by horse and carriage here! The smoke is from a barbeque (of course).

The lights in our town are the most tasteful for kilometres around... and the church was lit up by wonderful fireworks from a storytelling event in the town centre.

More lights when we arrived in England - my parents in law regularly go to visit a local street which is decorated for charity at Christmas. This year they took me, Ben and the boys - it was incredible!The theme for this part of the holidays was family - we had a great meet-up with the cousins for a visit to Bristol aquarium.We also met up with some friends - I finally got to visit Niki at her shop Nostalgia at No. 1 - she and her lovely shop are all I had imagined and more! Later in the visit I met up with "Josie Crafter" and we had such a good, long chat about the homemade, happy life and our various children. Ben and I also took the boys over to visit his old schoolfriend Bill (no, I'm not making up that name-combo) and we had an enjoyable late night with him and his family.Finally we arrived in Edinburgh, at 8.15am on Christmas Eve. It was fantastic to see my dad doing well, and to decorate the beautiful Christmas tree he'd put up in his hallway.

There was a LOT of food preparation over the next two days. Ben and the boys decorated the Christmas cake I'd made back in October, using the pieces of marzipan wreath the boys had made with Ben's mum. Then Ben prepared most of the Christmas dinner, and later the boys and I worked hard to prepare a buffet for Boxing Day evening, when my sister and her husband arrived.Hard work in the kitchen was a lot of fun, shared out as it was, and we were well-rewarded with a fantastic Christmas meal and truly magical Boxing Day spread! It was a relaxed and happy family Christmas.

The festivities in Edinburgh are never complete without a trip to the Winter Wonderland fair. This year we went with Aunty and Uncle, and shared out the rides between adults and teenagers - Son 1 went up the Scott Monument with his uncle and I later braved the Big Wheel. I feel I've spent too long not doing things, and the Big Wheel was a good Thing to Do!

Thanks for all your Christmas wishes - I'm off to read some of your own Christmas posts now...

Happy Christmas!

"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine."

Isaiah 9 verse 2.

Have a wonderful Christmas, friends!

A Childlike Christmas - Superstars!

I've had a lovely time sorting through some decorations (handmade by the boys or other crafters, bought Fair Trade or secondhand, or given by my pupils in past years) to illustrate my final question for our Childlike Christmas. I asked my pupils (aged from 5 - 9): 'Who is the most important person at Christmas?'

I was a bit wary about asking a loaded question - I've been Sunday School teacher to some of these children's older siblings, and others are from families where Christmas is a largely secular event, so I wanted to try to ask the question without implying that I'd like to hear any particular answer!I think I probably got to hear what they really thought - see for yourself from their answers!"Father Christmas!"

"Santa!"

"Rudolph...

... otherwise they wouldn't be able to travel!"

"Jesus!""Jesus... ... and NOT ME!"

Very definite words from a very definite little girl, that last one. She's not backwards in coming forwards, but she's not putting herself ahead of the baby in the manger. Well done her.

A Final Pause in Advent 2011

At the end of October, a friend wrote a little status update on Facebook. She wrote: ‘Dear Christmas. Please go away and come back in about four weeks. Love, everyone'.
It was just a little bon mot from her, but I liked it, mentioned it to the boys, and the rest is history – it’s kind of summed up our thinking about Christmas for November and much of December! I asked her permission to quote her here, as now, we think (and she agrees), that Christmas is very welcome indeed! Here is my own letter to Christmas, now that its time has come. It’s a letter very much from me, and not much in the style of my friend’s earlier witty note, but she’s the one who started me thinking – thanks!
Dear Christmas,

It’s good to finally meet up with you, at just the right time! We’re ready for you now, I think – the weather is almost wintery, and it certainly will be by the time we get to the UK for our hols. We’re more or less ready in terms of presents too, and Christmas cards, music, parties and decorations are getting us in the mood.

What do I hope for you this year, Christmas? I hope for safe travels and happy arrivals. I hope for good connections within our families – time spent among the different generations which builds up strong bonds of affection and understanding. I hope that the understanding we have of each other will lead to times of peace, avoiding the sort of pressure which can build up from unrealistic expectations of a dream Christmas. I hope for the creation of memories that will glow in each one of us after we’ve returned to our separate worlds of work, school and home.

What do I pray for this year, Christmas? I pray for our families. I pray for our friends and neighbours – several are facing Christmas at a time of sudden mourning or frightening illness - and I place them in God’s loving hands. I pray for our world, which is moving towards Christmas at a time of uncertainty, fear, ongoing poverty and war. I pray that I will remember, in the midst of the winter revelry, that the true centre of my Christmas, the true centre of my life, is the baby who was born into uncertainty, fear, poverty and war; the baby who is my Certainty, my Hope, my Wealth and my Peace.I pray I will remember that. I pray I will remember.

Clay - Part 2

At the beginning of December I set you the (rather obvious) challenge: what was Son 2 making out of the clay which had been dug out of some nearby earthworks? Of course most of you guessed right - here is the fired result!

A little earthernware snowman - isn't he cute? Son 2 is planning to add some stick arms and give him as a Christmas present.

He now has a big brother too. Don't you love the way the clay (fired in our wood fire) comes out looking like brick or tile? Of course it is brick clay - we have an old tileworks just down the road.Son 2 was back out there at the weekend, making some secret Christmas presents. Ben popped out to show him how to roll clay - Ben did pottery classes at school.

The results of this session are drying out in our spare room. Once they're fired I'll try to take a few photos, although I'd better not show them until after Christmas Day!