Monday 12/19: MARIA IS COMING TO VISIT!!!!

When I got on skype last night before going to sleep, Maria was online and she informed me that she is for sure going to Tanzania in January (to volunteer for 6 months teaching English) and she’s going to visit me on her way there!! I was so excited! I helped figure out some logistics (re: flights, trains, etc.), but I had so much trouble falling asleep. I didn’t get to sleep until about 2:30am and then I woke up several times during the night, finally skyping again with Maria at 7am to finalize the ticket. And she’s for sure arriving in Bordeaux on Jan 2^nd! I’m so so thrilled! :D

I went back to sleep from about 8-11am and then spent some time finishing up my Christmas presents for the kids here. I also worked a lot on the 4 poems I was writing for Sinterklaas.

Margot and went over to the school to shoot hoops again, but this time a janitor came out of the building to tell us that we weren’t allowed to be in there. Oops. Well, we knew it wasn’t really allowed (we climbed over the small fence to get in there), but we were only playing basketball and we weren’t touching anything! Also, the Bergfelds (even Ralf) have been playing basketball there for years! Oh well, we just apologized and left. No big deal.

This afternoon I helped Catherine make the Christmas dinner for tonight’s celebration. I peeled tons of potatoes and apples so we could make mashed potatoes and baked sliced apples. They had boudin blanc (kinda like sausages) and I had a vegetarian version.

The guests arrived around 7:30pm and we had champagne and little appetizers and sat around talking before dinner.

Photo: Christmas dinner! (R-L: Ralf, Marie-Pierre, Louise, Isabelle, Alexandre, Chantal, Catherine)

Chantal and family were there (along with Philippe’s other son, Louis), Marie-Pierre (a friend of the Bergfelds who also cleans the house here) and her mother, Louise, and also Isabelle with her little baby, Alexandre. In total, 15 people!

Photo: The girls: Claire (with an amazing hairdo), Margot, and Jeanne

After a lovely candlelight dinner, we had “Bûches de Noel”—yule logs! One was chocolate-pear and the other was chocolate-blood orange! I preferred the orange, but they both were delicious!

Then we opened presents! It was fun—everyone was handing out presents and then, once everyone had theirs, we all opened them. I received a pair of brightly colored slippers from Catherine (because she thinks that I got sick because I walk around barefoot), a set of mini cookie cutters from Marie-Pierre, an ornament from the Deslus family (Chantal), a handmade bracelet from Jeanne, and a card from Pierre and Claire. Pretty exciting!!

The kids were all happy with the gifts I gave them (cool playing cards from the US—kindly sent to me by my mom—for Margot, Hugo, and Lucas, an English easy-reader “Little House” book for Claire, fabric markers and white shirts for Pierre, and a journal for Jeanne!).

Photo: Claire shows off her presents from me

Photo: Margot and her American playing cards!

I also gave a chocolate-orange to the Deslus and Berfeld families, candy canes to all the kids, homemade bracelets to the girls, and a Zits day-to-day calendar to Catherine! She’s really excited about that! I told her that now she has to show me the comics every morning instead of me showing her mine!

Photo: Lucas does a card trick with his American playing cards

Afterwards Catherine and I cleaned everything up and then I headed up to bed! What a wonderful evening!

Photo: My new slippers and bracelet!