In light of everything that has gone on in Paris recently, and continues to go, on I wanted to look back on all the good times we had during the past holiday season. It is better to stay positive and think of the good times.

And WOW, our Holiday season was just jammed packed…of course just like everyone else's, it started all the way back to Thanksgiving.

Of course Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated in France, for obvious reasons, but we celebrate at our house, just like we did the prior year. We ordered our turkey from the local butcher and made all the sides and pies at home. There is one thing that I need to make it feel like Thanksgiving, not turkey, not apple pie but the Macy's Day parade. I can not go without it and thanks to technology we can stream it in. It is a tradition I have had since I was a little girl and love that my kids get as excited as I do watching the balloons and waiting for Santa. We also celebrated Thanksgiving a second time with our church in Paris, they always have a wonderful full Thanksgiving dinner to share with people from the city.

We then had some visitors from the states come for visit. An old colleague of Keith’s, John and his wife Maureen, came to enjoy Paris during the season. We got to enjoy some fun Christmas events with them, which included going to Chateau de Vicomte, for their Christmas decorations and enjoying a night at the Champs Elysee Market. It was our 8th anniversary so we decided a night out at the markets would be fun. John and Maureen also helped us get our Christmas tree up. As usual in Paris, the trees are a bit sparse looking. Every tree you pick out looks like a Charlie Brown tree. I can’ wait to get back to cutting down our own full tree in New Jersey!! (next year)

Putting up our "Charlie Brown" Xmas tree.

The following weekend was Peyton’s first performance on stage. She takes class at the American Theatre group of Paris and this year they were putting on A Christmas Carol. She had been singing her songs thru the year and she had one line to do. Since her group was a group of 3 to 5 year olds they had their own little section of the play and they did such a good job. As a little mouse, she did a great job and although she was very soft spoken she did her entire line. I am so proud of her and she wants to continue with the class. I can’t wait to see what show they are going to do in the spring.

Peyton getting ready for her show....the look!

The next big event was our Santa race. Each year there is a race just on the edge of Paris called Corrida de Noel. This race is awesome because one of the races requires you to dress in Santa or Ms Claus costumes. There is also a bunch of kids races. Last year we didn’t do it because it is the same day as our church’s Navity scene service (Keith did it and met us at church). I figured we did the Navity scene last year and God would appreciate that I am keeping my kids fit…lol.

Keith ran the 10k last year so it was my turn to do it. The kids were all excited with their Santa hats, Reindeer ears and I in my Ms Clause suit. Keith ran with Lance and I ran with Peyton. The kids race was a mile long, which they had never done before, but they were fine and probably could have gone further. They had soo much fun. There was fake snow and Santa’s waving thru out the race. They each did a great job. They each received a medal and some hot chocolate which made them super happy. Then it was time for my 10k. I had never seen so many dressed up Santas. We met our triathlon group there so we all lined up together and got some great pictures of the group. Thousands of santa’s…how fun. I had no expectations since it was just a fun run but I ended up coming in 5th for the women and winning my age group…woo hoo. It was the most fun I have had in a race. Then entire morning was so much fun!!! ( I know I have said that like 5 times)

some of the members of our tri club at the Santa race....what a great group!! — some of the members of our tri club at the Santa race....what a great group!!

Lance and Keith enjoying an after race snack.

Then it was the weekend before Christmas and we were on our way to Strasbourg, France, known to have the best Christmas markets in the world. We always wanted to go and we booked this trip at least 6 months in advance to get there. We took the kids out of the last day of school and headed on a 2 hour train ride up. Strasbourg is an interesting city, it is in France but has a very German feel to it. I am not sure of the history of the city but I would need to research it further.

It was amazing. I had never been to a more decorated city. Because of the size, which is a small town surrounded by a river, it is walkable for everything. We stayed a great hotel, the Sofitel, right in the middle of everything. Decorations were soo pretty and on every street. We shopped, ice skated, drank lots of vin chaud and just had a great time. I do have to admit although the town is super amazing and would recommend it to anyone, I did think the Markets themselves were better in Munich last year.

Kids loving all the Christmas decorations

Then was Christmas, wow, did it come fast. We got home from Strasbourg and had a few days to prepare. We went to the Christmas eve kids service and as usual our church did a great job. What added to it was that as a family we read two scripture readings. At first we were going to have Lance read but he didn’t want to do it this year so Keith and I each did one. Peyton was excited because the reading I did was close to what Linus recited in Charlie Brown Christmas.

After Church we decided to have a few close friends over just to eat, drink and be merry. It is one our traditions from home, having a Christmas Eve get together, that we want to continue wherever we are. It was super fun and so glad to spend it with friends when our family is so far away. I also found that the way to people's heart is an awesome chocolate mouse yule log cake. As usual the kids stayed up super late, which meant they might let us sleep just a little bit on Christmas morning….or not.

Christmas morning came and the kids didn’t wake up that early….maybe 7. But Santa came and WOW! I thought my kids were on the naughty list his year, I guess Santa had a change of heart. There were legos, a skateboard, Anna, Elsa……I can go on and on. Lets just say the kids were really happy!!!

Daddy putting together the Christmas project

A few days of playing and relaxing after Christmas and we headed to the French Alps to a village called Les Arcs 1950 to ski!! I received the recommendations from many people and loved the sound of it since it was a little ski-in ski-out village that was very kid friendly. Getting ready I saw that they were due to get snow, which we were excited about since Europe has had a very mild winter so far. Snow in the mountains….there really wasn’t any. Of course we had no idea what we were going into. Thank God, I am my usual self and booked us on an early train. At the time my family wasn’t too happy with me because of the time but as we got on the train and started headed into Alps, we were thanking God that we were on the early train. The forecast was calling for over 2 feet of snow and we were going right into it. As we were on the train we could see tons of cars stuck on the highway. We are on a train, we should be ok, right? Well our train then stopped and an announcement (in all French) came over the intercom and told us that we could not go further and didn’t know when we would continue. Of course you wonder how we knew what they said. Keith and I can pick up some of the words but I sent Keith to the snack car to ask them. The train did end up moving again but just one stop prior to our stop (which is the last stop) the train stopped moving again. We sat there for a while. Are we stuck, will they kick us off? After what felt like an hour but I am sure was only 15 minutes, we were off and made it to our last stop. We then had to take a big funicular (gondola) up to a stop and finally catch a shuttle. I was anticipating that the shuttles wouldn't be available, due to the storm, and considering the fact the shuttle goes up the mountain, there was no way we were getting there. Well the shuttle was running. It, however, was a little bit of a scary ride. But after 3 stops we made it and trucking our suitcases thru the crazy snowstorm we made it to our condo. We were so lucky, after talking to a lot of people, cars were stuck on the highway….overnight. Apparently, it was national news about people being stuck, we didn’t see any of it but are just so thankful. We were ready to let the the week begin.

After a great first night the storm ended and we woke up to great powder snow….wooo hoo!! We dropped the kids off for their first day of 6 days of ski school. Which meant Mommy and Daddy had all day to ski on their own for 6 days…Wow! Each day was just amazing at this little village, they had events every night for the kids and adults. There was roasting marshmallows with vin chaud and hot chocolate, kids dance bubble party, face painting, and sled riding. I can go on and on. Since Peyton is only 4 I decided to just put her in morning ski school and a kids club for lunch and the afternoon. Everyday I would pick her up around 4:30 – 5 and she would tell me that I was too early and to come back. I think she is still warming up to skiing, she likes it sometimes but doesn’t like it others. I am super proud of her though, by the last day she was on one of the big lifts going down the mountain. Unfortunately Keith and I didn’t see her ski down, we accidentally ran into her group by the lift. Of course I did not let her see me and then we couldn’t figure out where they were going with out her seeing me.

Lance, I can’t brag more about. I am so proud of him. He skied 6 days straight in ski school, all day. He was tired some days but he couldn’t wait to ski everyday. He was even introduced to poles, which is a big deal, since he learned since he was 3 without poles. This kid is going to ski better than Keith and I in no time…which isn’t that hard…lol! He was pretty sad leaving the ski town, I think we accomplished what we wanted with him….he just loves to ski!!

Keith and I had a great time skiing. We also got to ski 6 days straight. I am not sure the last time I skied 6 days straight..if ever. The first 4 days we were out there most of the day, we also learned that the best time to ski is when all the French are having their 2 hour lunch, so when most would take a break at lunch time we just skied thru. By day 5 we were pretty tired and only skied half of a day and day 6 we skied the morning and headed to the spa in the afternoon…yeah!!! The skiing was really good, my goal was to tackle all the bump runs and by the end of the week Keith and I were both loving all the bumps. It is normally not like me to like the bump runs but I am really loving them now.

Another great thing about this trip was that like usual we got a two bedroom condo so we could make dinner when we wanted and didn’t have to eat out. Of course we did eat out a few times but having the kitchen was such a benefit for breakfast and night time. There was a small but stocked grocery store, boulangerie (bakery) and a few specialty stores. Another thing to mention is that we have become an UNO playing family. The kids got the game from Santa and we have been playing it morning and night. It makes me happy because it reminds me of when I used to play as a kid with my family and my parents best friends, the Hutchinsons. I remember just tons of people around the table playing lethal, fun games of UNO. The kids just love it!!! Makes me happy!

We celebrated New Year’s in the village and they had a spectacular laser light show and fireworks show. The kids really wanted to try to stay up for the fireworks but were happy when the village next door set theirs off at 8pm instead. YES!!

I can’t rave more about this village. The kids had a blast, we had a blast and the kids even made friends all week. Lance had a few friends, Will and Sam, which were in his ski school and Peyton had her buddy Sarah, which she looked forward to playing with everyday. What a great trip.

Which brings me to a question that came up on our last night… "Why?" So on our last night in the village we ate at the really good pizza place. We went their the first night. It had good food, not too crazy expensive and was kid friendly. When we were finishing our meal, the people at the table next to us asked if we were from the US. They were from the UK and I need to mention that most people vacationing at this place were British. There were many French but mostly British and I didn’t really see any other Americans. Not knowing French was not at all a problem. Anyway to get back to our answer.."Why yes we are Americans.." Then the question came…"Why are you here?" There is such great skiing in America. Keith and I could only look at each other shake our heads with a big smile on our faces, because this was our 3rd ski trip in Europe. The only thing we could say is "Yes". Yes it is much better in America. We continued to chat with them, explained that we live in Paris and are trying to experience Europe. We then all chatted about our favorite places to ski in America. European skiing is ok but nothing compared to the American West. We said while we were in Europe we would take advantage and try all the different areas of skiing. After 3 trips in Europe we are done with it and heading back to our favorite place, Colorado, in February. I can’t wait!!

Keith and I enjoying our 6 days of skiing....free of children!

Mont Blanc!  Right outside our door. — Mont Blanc! Right outside our door.

On our way home from vacation....just relaxing.

It has been a great holiday season and I am just so excited for the future months. The Nate suite (name for our guest room) is booking up. I am thinking because of our dwindling time left here. A few of my best friends have already booked their flights and I am so excited for my sister to come visit me next month...Woo Hoo!

Oh yeah, I have officially started my marathon training. Nothing new for me, have done it many times in the past BUT....that is a big BUT, I have never trained for a marathon in the city. Maybe those of you that have trained in NYC can give me some advice. The worst thing about it that Paris shuts off all of their water fountains for the winter...great!! It is not like I can hide a water bottle behind a park bench or something like I do at home on the trails. So not I have to go out and buy one of those awful water backpacks or belts (probably won't get the belt). I always made fun of people with them and now I have to go get one....YUCK! Can you tell I am not happy about it. Oh well, let just hope I make til April.

Of course this past week, with the terrorist attacks in the city, has been a hard time for the French and we are all affected over here. I have run into police drawing guns for false alarms, armed guards at the kids school and just recently a closure of the schools due to a threat. I have lived thru many things like this in the US (even worse) but now that I have children these threats hit me much harder than when I was younger. I feel like people are in a bit of a panic over here and I just hope it ends soon. The good thing is that we are all safe and sound.

I really appreciate all the nice notes from everyone. It makes us feel safer knowing that we have so many friends and family that care about us.

We love you all.

Life is “still” good in Paris (and anywhere else we travel)

Xoxoxox

Alicia

Oh yeah, I have included some additional pictures

My great friend Nicky and her beautiful new baby Arielle !!

Below are some pictures that didn't make the Christmas Card, but will definitely be framed. All wonderful thanks to a friend and great photographer Andrea. http://andreajanesphotography.com/