Joyeux Noel

Well we headed home to Ireland for 10 glorious days.
Five with Hubby's folks in Dublin and Five in my home village.
It all started like a race. A whirlwind tour of family and buddies.
The always-there-for-us Kelly gang offered to host sonny boy's 5th birthday bash in their house...a ginormous thank you to all of them, I'm sure there wasn't much residual damage. We celebrated Brian AND Fiona's 40th birthday bashes on the same bloody night...typical (3 birthday parties in one day)! Didn't make it to Fifi's despite my bestist efforts. At least I got to meet her the day before for a meal and a chat.

High-tailed it down the country to be laid low by flu...Well it couldn't have been a common head cold to stop me in my tracks like that...My Dad commented on my hourly health reports, which were guilt fuelled, as I felt I wasn't pulling my weight food prep wise. Who wants a snivelling, snuffling, sneezer prepping their Christmas dinner anyway huh? Best to lie back with a hot whiskey. Well hubby, Princess and I were all knocked out by it, but our new 5 yo escaped, touch wood. Must've been his diet of selection boxes and quality street that kept the bugs at bay.

It was really really lovely being home with everyone we love so much.
I really miss them all. I love being in France and having the new experiences, but what makes it nicer is that it is a temporary thing and we will be back near everyone this time next year. .

Remind me to reread this post when I'm beeching about them will ya!.

French Christmas Drinkies Chez-nous

It all went very well...thank God.

Hubby and I had a few words in the planning phases...owing to different umm visions..of the strategy...;) His was nibbles and drinkies....mine was a 3 course meal...so we compromised and did the 3 course meal.

It took 2 days hard labour...we are blissfully olivious to how untidy and disorganised our house is until we move, throw a party or have visitors. So now it looks great on the surface...but please don't open any presses.

Our local Victor Meldrew showed up 20 minutes early laden down with 2 bottles of champagne, a big box of chocolates and a big bag of sweets for the kids.
Very generous and neighbourly considering his first words to us were grumbling about les anglais (us) and their dogs. Once he realised we weren't anglais he has looked more kindly on us and our dog. Anyway he didn't want anything to eat or drink, explained about his diabetes and just stood there in the kitchen chatting, with me straaaaining to understand. Sort of a taste of our worst case scenario.

All the other neighbours arrived around 5 ish, all except our immediate neighbours...weird...they never salute or speak to us anyway...who knows what's going on there. So we had 11 adults and 10 kids in total.

I bought bubbles, plasticine and ultra bouncy balls for the kids to play with and they were a great hit...kept then all amused for the duration....even the teenagers, whom I apologised profusely to, about the juvenile nature of the toys.

The neighbours all brought something, wine, a quiche and a tarte tatin. Delicious.
They gobbled down the hungarian goulash, and wondered if it was an irish dish! We offered rice or mash...they all wanted rice..so they got biafran portions...the spuds were lovely if I do say so myself.

My winter berry cheesecake was a big hit. Cheesecake is unusual in France apparently. I didn't tell them I sieved the raspberry coulis using a foot cut off a new (I swear) pair of tights.

We got the impression that they didn't know each other well either...so we are acting like a social lubricant. They were all lovely and seemed genuinely delighted to have been invited. We have the promise of two reciprocal invites. My french held up fine except, with Victor Meldrew who has a very strong accent. Hubby was happy with his level of comprehension and ability to communicate. Our Scottish, Swedish and one of our english guests also speak good french...so we were away in a hack.

The kids atarted getting grumbly around 8ish so everyone started to disperse and we were all cleaned up by 10pm. A great success considering the youngest guest were 5 and 7 weeks old and the oldest in their 70s.

Itsa Dog's Life

The Bitch In The Family

I want to introduce the bitch in our family. She was filling the gap created by the death (assisted) of our elderly Jack Russell Terrier. Houdini, would have been an appropriate name for her. She easily jumps 6 ft fences, can open doors inwards and has little trouble pulling a window open and hopping thru the 5 ft high gap.

At 18 months old she was not house trained and still very much into top-of-the-range shoe leather snacks, with the occasional TV cable chaser. While house training her, I put up a baby-gate to keep her in the kitchen...she lept it AND the baby without even running at it. Those were the challenges!.

The rewards were: she liked us and returned after her escapades and once she had a fix on things, gave up escaping altogether. She loves loves loves playing with kids, our kids, the neighbour kids, passing kids. She loves other dogs too. A little over enthusiastically sometimes! She will give cats a run, but hasn't harmed one to our knowledge, although my Dad's tom has put manners on her. Once she has a daily run (has to be a run) she is content to laze about in her bed. If she doesn't get that run...she nags (whines)more than the highest paid personal trainer..

She has fitted in extremely well. When we decided to move to France, everyone asked about the dog and seemed surprised that of course she would come too. She was passported and vaccinated up the ying-yang (I'm guessing about €300 all in...haven't burdened hubby with that bit) and made the 20 hr ferry journey and 14 hr drive with hubby. She was less than impressed with the summer heat, but loves the winter snow...I think, she thinks she's a husky. She gets much more admiring oohhs and aaahs from the french than she did at home, the french don't seem to be familiar with lurchers or "Levrier croise" as I translate it..

I've commited to hosting Multicultural Multilingual Party

Heeelp!

Savoyard people are a bit crusty on the outside. Not overtly friendly until you have reason to talk to them individually. I have found them very helpful and nice when you get past the initial barrier though.

So we have been a little sluggish getting to know our immediate french neighbours.
I didn't invite them over in the beginning...being an attrative young woman living manless and all! I felt I didn't want to advertise my vunerability. I KNOW small villages....they always have the local weirdo. When hubby came on his trips he wasn't up for entertaining.

So here we are, all settled in, en famille, Christmas is approaching....ideal oppourtunity.
So as per usual I decide to go in baldy headed....hubby as per usual trying to apply the brakes, being shyer and not very confident of his french. So I have more or less bullied him into agreeing to hosting a party next Sunday. 5 o clock kick off to facilitate the kids. Hopefully early enough to bed. I just wrote up the invites and posted them in the letter boxes...so the dye is cast...aaargh.

Parteeeeee Time

3 Storey Savoyard Farmhouse in Original Condition with Hayloft.

Our new friends have a 300 yr old house nestled on the steep side of a mountain in a tiny village near-by...staggering distance if there wasn't a foot of snow on the track tween here and there.

These old farmhouses used to keep animals in the basement, people lived in the middle levels and then they have these huge open-at-each-end attics where they stored hay. So heat from the bottom and insulation at the top. Very green , back in the day. Pictured above is a similar house in its original condition.

Anyhow they have spent all this summer converting the hay-loft to a kitchen/dining area. It is really breath-taking. A beautiful wood burning stove....great open space for a party. The open end of the loft has been glazed and and there is a big balcony with an aerial view of the Tarentaise valley as it snakes towards Albertville. Stunning.

I've been gasping for a night out. The half hearted search for a baby-sitter proving fruitless.
So we've been staying in....for 3 months!!!!!Imagine my delight when our new friend invites us to her 40th birthday party...kids and all. 6 o clock kick-off.

What an oppourtunity to have a long bath and get dressed up. My stylist was somewhat stumped by the footwear limitations...no matter what, cos of the weather, deep slushy snow....I had to wear my furry wellies. Building an outfit from wellies up, was a challenge. By the time I was dressed and polished and donned my wellies and waterproof trousers (risk of car not making it all the way up steep hill to the house, so possibility of walking 1/2mile or so in slushy rain)....I did actually feel quite nice.

The hostess's hubby is swedish and some of his family were over, there were french friends, scottish, english and australians. Lots of little kids our kids age.
So three languages being blathered about. Princess's little friend, daughter of our hosts can speak all three at 3 years old!

The crowd were lovely and it was great to chat to people and the kids had a ball too. Most of the crowd had to leave around 8 pm as the kids were starting to get snarly.

The car made it up the hill to the house but we parked on thick ice and snow...only have 2 wheel drive. But as princess pointed out..."mommy we have snow tires now!" The host said we might have to push...thank god...I brought waterproof trousers. Anyway car managed to reverse out of the snow/ice and gravity took care of the rest. Home by 8.45pm....GREAT PARTY.

Toboganning Today in Val D'isere

Well the kids have no school on wednesdays, and Val is the only local resort open at the mo.

They have 3 free ski-lifts. How long that lasts we don't know, but we certainly can't afford to buy ski passes for Val or "Bal" as sonny boy calls it.

Its the poshest of the many ski stations in our area....but we brought it back to earth...Huh?