Christmas.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and lots of fun with friends and family.

Here, the holidays have been pretty busy, but not crazy. On the 22nd, I had the supper with the people I sing with. Everything was delicious. Many people got up and sang a song, and we also sang alot of "chansons à répondre". That's where one person sings a song and then everyone replies in song. Many old French songs are this type. After the supper, many of us ended up at the Entr'acte. You may remember seeing it in a previous post. It is a pub; very rustic inside and there is no dance floor.. it is really a place to go and talk.

On the 23rd, I finally finished the calligraphy for the wedding album. Yay! There are just so many flowers and hearts and vines that a person can take.

On the 24th, I had my family over for a buffet supper. Food is piled miles high, the children open their gifts and we all just kick back and relax.

We had an unexpected visit from Santa. Donald is our friend and neighbor. He has played Santa for his kids since the last 4 years. He gets dressed up.. makes a bit of noise so his kids can actually see him putting presents under the tree.. and then he leaves and comes to our house. His kids watched him through their upstairs window. Nico is going to be 8 and there are alot of kids at school already telling him Santa doesn't exist.. and this made the magic of Xmas real for him. To me, Santa is the Xmas spirit... and taking the time to dress up and make it magical for your kids is what the Xmas spirit is all about.

When everyone leaves at something like 3 in the morning, we start to prepare for the 25th. It is pretty crazy. Make cake and then while that is baking, start making the turkey stuffing.. it is a weird circle... cook, eat, clean, sleep, cook, eat, clean, sleep.

I was really hankering to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on tv at 8:00 but Fanny and Steven were not going to be arriving at our house before 7:00... so supper was later than normal and when 8:00 rolled around, people were still stuffing themselves with turkey and tourtière... suffice to say, I didn't get to watch it this year.

On the 26th, we had supper with our friends and neighbors.. Donald and Lyne.. Méghan and Nicolas were so excited to tell me about how they saw Santa putting presents under our tree and how they saw him enter our house. Their eyes were all lit up and they were still all wrapped up in the magic of the moment. It was wonderful to see.

Yesterday we had supper with Carmen and Michel. They also have 2 children. I told Kevin how Santa had come to our house.. So I asked him if Santa had left him gifts.. and he said, no.. his parents did, but Santa didn't because of course... he didn't believe in Santa anymore. There are no cookies and milk for Santa.. no carrots for the reindeer.. no spirit and no magic. Ah.. too bad! Maybe I'm just being too sentimental.

Today it is noon and I'm still not dressed, just running around in a robe taking it easy. I'm thinking supper will either be leftovers or pizza.. I'm not cooking today, even if you beg me!