Noel à Paris

Christmas is Paris can be magical...if you bundle up and go outside. There are a ton of things to do and the Parisians really go out of their way.

The Champs Elycées is all lit up and very pretty. At the end of the Champs there is a ferris wheel all lit up on the Place de la Concorde.

All throughout Paris (and most of Europe for that matter) there are Christmas markets. There are little booths decorated like chalets with lights. There are knick knacks, handmade things, authentic french stuff, and lots and lots of food. Sorry for this bumpy video. We were driving down the Champs Elycées (which is made of cobblestones) and I wanted to get video of the markets on the street. Both sides of the street were filled with these markets.


The store windows are decorated. There is a shopping center called Galeries Lafayette that has animated windows. (even though they're not really Christmas related). This is the Christmas tree in the center of the mall.

There are skating rinks placed all over the place. In fact, the first floor of the Eiffel Tower is turned into a skating rink. Maybe we'll do that next year. At most of the touristy spots the carousels are free. We found a makeshift hill of snow at Trocadéro. The boys really enjoyed sledding, even it was a little hill.

At church we had our annual Christmas party. It was the last ward activity I got to plan. Although it is stressful leading up to it, I know that everyone had a good time. The Primary did the Christmas story with a live crèche. It was very cute and they boys had fun. Matt chose to be a wise man and Thomas got to be a shepherd.
Who knew there was a dog in the stable as well?Being a shepherd at Christmas is yet another way to reuse the Jedi robe costume.

Timmy was less than cooperative most of the evening. And since I was running around organizing things and the music, Timmy got to hang out in his stroller to keep him from getting lost in the crowd.

les sacrifices

Moms make a lot of sacrifices for their children. Here is what happened today when there was a snowfall large enough to shut down Paris. I want to document this to remember.

First of all, Doug is out of town. So that means that every morning at 7:30 I have to take all three kids to the bus stop...in the cold. (Normally I leave Timmy sleeping while Doug gets ready and he leaves when I get back). Anyway, I kept thinking that it would be nice to have a morning where we all could sleep in and not have to go to the bus stop. Bu I can't really rationalize my kids skipping school just because we're all tired...can I?

Well, last night around 11 PM/midnight, Thomas comes into the living room hacking and coughing worse than he has been for the past few days. "That's it!" I thought. 'That's my ticket to keeping him home tomorrow." And since it wouldn't do him any good to have to be taken to the bus stop at 7:30 AM in the freezing cold (what NOT to do when one is sick), I decided to call them both in sick.

After everyone slept in until about 9 AM, we all felt much better. We did some housework and some homework/writing activities. Then since we were all feeling better and all did work in the morning, we went to a friend's house who was having an activity for make sugar cookies. While we were there, it started to snow...a lot. For the next 5 hours non stop. The boys were having fun and I really enjoyed having people to talk to, so we stayed until the snow stopped. That was my mistake.

I knew that things would be bad out on the streets and I already knew there were bus problems. I had received a text on my phone about how the buses for the school were not really running and that parents needed to make arrangements to come get their children. I was very thankful at that moment that my kids were not at school.

However, I should have left to go home before ALL the buses (Paris public) stopped working. We left my friend's house and went to wait at the bus stop by her place. After 20 minutes the notifications came on saying that the buses were no longer running. So we had to walk home. 2.1 km. (1.3 miles) With 3 kids, using a stroller in the slush, mostly uphill, and both Matt and Thomas forgot their gloves.

After a little while of whining about cold hands, I gave each of them one of my gloves. So each of them had one glove on and one hand in the pocket. Timmy refuses to wear any gloves.

There were a lot of puddles of slushy snow/water at each curb and inevitably Matt and Thomas stepped in puddles, thus getting their tennis shoes all wet and getting their feet cold. Then the crying started about the cold feet. In fact Matt said, "My feet are frozen and will have to be cut off. They feel like they're exploding!" So I, being Mom, stopped at the next bus stop where I proceeded to share both of MY dry socks. Again, each boy got one dry sock and removed their wet one. So now I had no socks, and no gloves. But I wasn't really thinking of that. I was trying to think positive to keep up morale.

Because we had made sugar cookies earlier I was carrying a bag of cookies with me. So I would give them a cookie at each bus stop we passed by. There still was a lot of complaining until I realized that we were only 3 stops away from our house. Once I told the boys that, then their spirits were lifted. We talked about how there are challenges to overcome and we can do it step by step. Even though it seems as if we'll never make it through we just have to keep on going. And when we look backward we realize just how far we came.

When we were crossing a bigger busier street we saw a man with grocery bags tied around his ankles to keep his shoes dry. Thomas said, "I wish Daddy was here to help up jump over the puddles." It is at this point that Thomas tells me that he really has to go to the bathroom. I told him that he could wait until he gets home because it was too cold to go outside. Then I told him that if he peed his pants that his legs might be warm for a minute because pee is warm. He looked shocked that I said that and thought it was pretty funny.

By the time we got home Timmy had cried himself to sleep and everyone was cold and exhausted. Matt expressed some concern about crying a lot and asked me, "Is it bad to cry and loose liquid out of your eyes?". I got them all changed into warm PJ's, curled up in blankets in front of a cartoon. Then we had tomato soup for dinner.

After everyone was warm, I realized that my heels were stinging. I looked down and realized that my shoes had rubbed the back of my heels raw and both were bleeding and cut. I wondered why I didn't notice it before and I assume that it was the mommy adrenaline that had kicked in. I then thought about the pioneers and how they walked much much further than 1.3 miles in the snow and I'm sure their shoes were worse than mine. It certainly put things into better perspective for me and I am that much more thankful for what they went through.

I'm also really thankful that I kept the boys home from school. Some may say I was inspired, but whatever the case is I think that the fiasco of getting the boys would have been a little worse than walking home. During the rest of the night I continued to get emails from the school with updates of what was going on. Here are a couple I'll share from the head of the school:

"4:15 PM Allow me to update you. No buses have arrived to campus as of yet (4:10PM)t. The road in front of school is stopped with cars and (town) police have closed some roads in our area. We remain in contact with our bus service and will let you know when conditions allow travel away from our campus.

Everyone is fine– cozy in fact. Students and faculty are doing very well. Again, we are in the midst of preparing a dinner if needed"

"7:45 PM One bus has arrived, but was not able to drive on to campus due to traffic, so has parked several blocks away. I have no news on buses as of yet– and I am aware that some of the bus drivers are refusing to drive further because of safety conditions in our area. The snow has stopped and we expect conditions to improve.

I estimate that we have about 200 students with us. Dinner was chicken, fruit and french fries– a bit lacking in greens, but really...no one seemed to mind. The conversation was very good."

The last email came at 9:45 PM saying that finally all the students had left the campus and were on their way home. I am so grateful that I didn't have to deal with all that. We had our moment of trial and hopefully we have all learned from it.

Like remember to take your gloves with you on a cold day and do not step in puddles.

Se déguiser

We got to do some Halloween festivities this month despite the fact that there isn't Halloween celebrated here that much. (there are plenty of people here looking for a good excuse to party and I imagine that Halloween is one of those excuses)

We got to go to a Primary Halloween party at the church, at their school, and at the Embassy.Playing with slime at an activity booth.

Ride-em cowboy. Timmy left the Primary activity to ride the horse in the Nursery room.The boys got to have a parade through the school in their costumes. Thomas is a blur because he didn't slow down coming down the stairs. I took treats to the Kindergarten classes and it was fun to see all the little kids all dressed up.The kindergartners also had a pinata to break and each child got three whacks. Here's Thomas



Here's Matt at the school. They apparently had some face painting beforehand.

A friend of ours had a Buzz lightyear costume to give away to a good home. The first time Thomas put it on he jumped off the couch saying, "To infinity and beyond!"

la Musée de la Poupée

Today I went to the Musée de la Poupée (the Doll Museum). I went with one of my friend's daughters because there was no way anyone in my household would go with me. Timmy had to go by default, and he was not happy. (maybe he wasn't happy because he was stuck in his stroller, but he wiggled and screamed pretty much the whole time). It was a very small museum with many dolls from the late 1700's and 1800's. They were all french dolls, and very pretty. I could picture some little royalty girl playing with these. There was also a display of more modern dolls and their...um...shall we say outfits. Although they reminded me of a Victoria Secret magazine. Imagine the pouty over make-upped models made into a Barbie like doll. (kind of like Bratz) and then having a bunch of totally inappropriate outfits. Apparently there are different displays from time to time and maybe it would be nice to go back when there are the old fashioned Santa dolls around Christmastime.

Close to the Doll Museum is the Centre Pompidou with all its modern art. Here are some of the fountains. (if you have ever watched "French in Action" you will recognize these.Then down the street from the Centre Pompidou is the Hotel de Ville. We stopped and got some pastries and sat down by the fountains. I then let Timmy run free.

Les Tuilleries

There are many gardens and parks in Paris. I'm pleasantly surprised how many of them are child appropriate. There are beautiful gardens right next to the Louvre called les Jardins des Tuilleries. They were created for Catherine de Medicis when she moved to the Louvre in 1559. Over the years the gardens went through transformations and it was Louis XIV who made them the way they are today. (Louis XIV loved making things symmetrical and is also responsible for the gardens at Versailles)

The Tuilleries are right next to the Place de la Concorde as well.
This is a view up the Champs Elycées from the gardens. You can see all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe.
This is the playground. I'm not terribly impressed with it because it scares me. It is so high off the ground and the ground is a squishy type of ground that is still way too hard. Granted, this playground is for kids over the age of 5, but I still think I'll avoid it.
They do, however, have trampolines for the kids. And the minimum age is 2 so Timmy can participate. Each child has his own trampoline so as to avoid any collisions or accidents


It is also a great place to play Boules (or Bocci, or Pétanque, or whatever you want to call it). I loved seeing all the boules courts in the south of France (where it is a national past time. It's not unusual to see a lot of boules games going on with old men in their caps sitting around trying to guess whose ball is closer to the cochonnet.) We have taught it to the boys and the Tuilleries is a great place to play. A big part of the game is standing around trying to guess where to toss your ball and then measuring out who is closest.

Cité des science & de l'industrie

There is a wonderful museum just for kids in the northeast part of Paris. It's called la Cité des Science & de l'Industrie. It is close to the park where Doug plays soccer. So every once in a while we all pile in the car and go to the museum while Doug plays soccer. This museum is so fun for kids we even bought a year pass. It has play areas geared towards different age groups, interactive learning displays on light and shadows, the earth and space, technology, food, movies, and many more.

This is the Géode. It is a 3-D movie theater. We haven't been in it yet. It's cool how it's reflective and it has these weird humming sounds coming from it.

We play a lot in the Cité des enfants, ages 2-7. There is another play area geared towards kids 5-12, but we haven't even explored that part yet. Here the boys are playing with an air display.

We enjoy the water area where one can experiment with water movement. Thankfully they provide rain jackets for small kids to keep dry. The first time we came here, Timmy managed to dump a whole bucket of water on himself mere seconds before I was going to put a waterproof smock on him. I have now learned, and it's the first thing we put on when we go here.



All three boys absolutely love the builders area. There are wheelbarrows to push, blocks to build with, pullys to use, and stairs to climb. Matt and Thomas can play here for a very long time and occasionally they have made a friend.



We recently discovered some flourescent lights the boys could use to "draw" on the wall. Matt's light wasn't as strong so he had a hard time writing.
There is temporary food exhibit teaching children about food and eating well. There is even a 'foodball' table to play with. At the end of the foosball table is an open mouth waiting for the ball. There are games to guess what kind of healthy meal is appropriate for different kinds of people. There's a display of what happens to your food after it goes in your mouth complete with a tiny toilet at the end. There is an interactive shopping game with shopping carts to teach children about what kinds of things are better for you. It's all fun and it's educational.I'm sure we'll be back many times and I'll periodically post new pictures from this place. If you have kids and you come to Paris, I highly recommend coming here.

Fête Foraine du Jardin desTuileries

Today we went to a carnival. Every summer there is a carnival set up in the Tuilleries gardens next to the Louvre. It's a complete rip off with each ride averaging 2 Euros/ride, but the boys loved it. It is complete with a ferris wheel, rides, games, and of course, churros and cotton candy.

Matt is trying to get a goal. Timmy's favorite ride was the cars. I just strapped him in and away he went.

The boys loved the bumper cars. They were also my favorite at carnivals. I went to ride with them only to discover that my hips were too big to sit in the car. So I opted for a motor cycle instead. Thomas had one incident where he complained of whip lash, and the boys were plotting for the next time to both gang up on people that crashed them hard. I told them it was part of the ride.






There was also a dinosaur display. It was so lame compared to the one we recently went to. Oh well.

I think that we will enjoy coming here as the boys get bigger every summer. They really wanted to do the shooting game but they were too young for them. Maybe next year we'll get Doug to come with us and show the boys his mad gaming skillz when it comes to carnival games. Perhaps all those years at Lagoon will pay off the he can win the boys a prize.