Nativity Scene and last day of school

(From 18 Dec 08 - Sorry it took me so long to post this but I don't seem to be able to load the video on my parents' computer so here is the post without video...)

As I said before, the girls are attending my old school (Enfant-Jésus) while we are in Belgium. Since it is a Catholic school, they celebrate the birth of Jesus more than Santa which is great.


This year, Emilie's teacher's class was the one putting on a live nativity scene (crèche vivante) for the other classes.

Emilie chose to be one of the Kings. At the parents' request, Miss Isabelle, her teacher, and Miss Chloé, the student teacher, decided to have a show for the parents as well. So Papy, Maminou, Sandrine and I went to watch it on Friday afternoon. I saw the version on Thursday (Emilie did better then but I did not have my camera) and on Friday the kids were a little tired and more excited than the previous day but it was still very cute... They did a great job just in 1 1/2 week.


The girls each made a a card for their teacher and brought them a little gift for Christmas. Now they are off for two weeks for the Holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We wish you all a Blessed Christmas and

a Wonderful New Year!

May 2009 bring you Joy, Health and Love!

Love,

Anne, Mike, Emilie & Claire

Nous vous souhaitons un très Joyeux Noël

et une Bonne et Heureuse Année!

Que 2009 vous apporte Joie, Santé et Amour!


Bisous,


Anne, Mike, Emilie & Claire

Disneyland Paris

As I said earlier, St Nicolas brought a special surprise to the girls, a trip to a 'magical land' with Maman and Maminou.

So on Wednesday morning (very early morning - the first train was at 6.30 AM), we took the train to Brussels to then get on the TGV to Paris (Marne-la-Vallée).

The girls were really excited. After about 1h30 on the TGV, we got out of the train station and Emilie screamed 'Disneyworld! I knew it!'. She had recognized the bus stops for the Disney busses (which are not very different than the regular bus stops in Europe). We took the bus to our hotel, the Newport Bay Club, checked ourselves in, got our room early, dropped our suitcase and headed to the Disneyland park. We got there around 10.00 am and started our adventures.

We showed Maminou all the fun rides (it was her first time in a Disney park). We did Dumbo, the Mad Tea cups, It's a small world, ... and discovered some new ones Pinocchio, Snow White, Alice's Labyrinth, Lancelot's Carousel (instead of Cinderella's).

Alice's Labyrinth

The lines were not bad at all (about 10 min) even if the park got a little more crowded in the afternoon (there is no school for the kids on Wedn afternoon).

The park is much smaller than the one in Florida and we thought about heading back to the hotel in the afternoon to come back for the night shows but ended up staying there, watching the Magic of Winter show

and visiting Santa (THAT line was long, about 50 min!).

Then we had dinner at the Village just outside the gate and came back to watch night parade which was awesome.

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel where Mickey and Minnie came to pay us a visit

Claire wanted to go only if I was carying her...

and then took our time to head back to the park since our train was leaving at 18.30 that evening. We went on more rides and saw the afternoon parade and left the park to have dinner and take the train back to Brussels where Papy came to pick us up.

Claire is waving to the characters of the Parade...

All in all, we had a great time even though we were pretty cold the whole time but we did get some sun on Wedn afternoon and Thursday. We were all glad to be wearing fleece lined pants and warm clothes!

Thank you St Nicolas! :-)

Happy St Nicolas

Today, December 6th, was St Nicolas' Day. The girls and their little cousins were spoiled by the big Saint!

They got to see him a few times before at the toy store and in school and its was actually the first time Emilie took to someone like Santa or St Nicolas so I was pleasantly surprised :-) Claire on the other hand is completely scared of him and does not to have anything to do with him. She is fine till she sees him, before that she gets excited and wants to go but as soon as she is in front of him... Claire was out of sight!

At the toy store ------------ At school

Claire and Emilie's class with St Nicolas

Emilie and Claire prepared a plate last night in front of the chimney with carrots, sugar for his donkey, milk for Black Peter and chocolate and ... wine (did not have any beer in the house) for St Nic as well as a big poster that Claire painted in school and a picture Emilie made.

They both came to wake me up at 3.30, then 6.00 and finally 7.15 to aks me if he had already come by. So it was a looong night :-)

At 7.15, I told Emilie we could go but she needed to wait for Claire and go wake Maminou up first (at her request). Emilie quickly went to her sister's bed and told her it was time to go check out their presents... When we got to the living room, she was very surprised to see all the gifts. I had to tell her to wait and get Maminou, they all came back down and looked at everything (there were gifts for their 3 cousins as well) before starting to 'open' their own.

They were very surprised and pleased. They had not requested anything special - just mentionned piano, doll, princesses and ... yesterday in the car, Emilie said out of the blue that she would really like to go back to Disneyworld. Well, next to all their gifts, there was a note from St Nicolas telling them he had prepared a special trip for them. Maminou and Maman are going to take them to a magical country where they will get to meet Santa Claus and many other of his wonderful friends... They did not say anything at first but later on when we talked to Mike, Emilie sreamed 'I know, we are going to Disneyworld!' SO their surprise as you can now guess is a trip to Disneyland Paris in a few days. They don't quiet know or realize it yet...

Papy and Maminou help the girls open their gifts...

My 2 princesses ...

In the afternoon, we were joined by Sandrine and Jean-Luc with their 9 days old daughter, Chloé followed by Béné, Benji with Charline and Batiste. All the kids were spoiled again by the St Nicolas that came to their godmothers' house. Later on, we stepped outside Papy and Maminou's house to see Santa drive by with Black Peter with Charline, Béné, Sandrine and Jean-Marie and Bernadette, our cousins, who came to meet Chloé. Emilie loved it, she waved and sang the songs playing on the speakers as St Nicolas was approaching, she even climbed on one of the escort's motorcycle and did not want to get off! When he approached, she thanked him for all the gifts. Claire on the other hand, was very excited till he arrived in front of the house and run away crying... The girls as well as Charline and a lot of grandkids from the neighborhood got a bag of speculoos from him and Emilie and Charline even got a little stuffed animal that he kept in a closed bag :-) Then we waved them goodbye went back inside and finished the day with a glass of wine and some good cheeses!

At the end of the day, Emilie came to me and asked me why St Nicolas had white make-up on !

Emilie and Chloé ---------- Claire and her godmother, Beni

Emilie waves to St Nicolas and sits on the escort's motorcycle ... Wordless !

Black Peter and Saint Nicolas

Happy Thanksgiving and Welcome Chloé

2h30 after the birth...

My sister Sandrine gave birth to a beautiful baby girl today at 13.00. Her name is Chloé and she weighs 3kg300 for 49 cm. I am the proud godmother! Mom, baby, ... and Dad are recovering at the hospital for a few days.

More details later but already some pictures taken 2h30 after her birth, my Mom and I went for a quick visit...

1 day old

Waiting...

We arrived in Belgium safe and sound. It was snowing and very cold, temperature shock from Florida! The girls are completely jet-lagged and Claire has a big cold/cough.

Yesterday, we went to see the school I attended as a child and found out the girls could start whenever they wanted. Of course Emilie would have started the day we arrived but they still are up during the night and can't therefore not get up in the AM. Hopefully they will get into a routine soon and start school on Monday. Emilie was very upset this mroning when she got up and and found out school was almost out (1/2 day on Wednesday). Claire slept in my room last night to keep her from waking Emilie up and I hve to admit neither she or I slept longer than 1h last night. We will need some serious naps in the next couple of days...

Sandrine is still pregnant and actually 5 days overdue. My Mom says the baby will arrive on the new girl moon on Thursday 27 Nov... (which is also Thanksgiving for us in the USA). I just think my goddaughter is just too comfy and does not want to experience the cold weather :-). Jean-Luc and Sandrine will stay with us at my parents' house till the baby is born, then they will go to his parents. They haven't started any of the renovations on their house yet so they have been staying with the parents since then.

We heard from Mike who is doing good. He called us and we can still google talk with him. He is now only 2 hours away but it still seems so far...

Next week is December with St Nicolas on Saturday and Xmas in 1 month! Time does fly by quickly...