Category Archives: France

A Little Bit of This…A Little Bit of That

Posted in France, Work by

Ahh, nothing could have made my weekend start off better than a wonderful morning at work…which is exactly what I had today! I mentioned in my last post, but during September I am only working Saturday mornings and then I have some training during the week. So this morning I had my second “Very Early Learners” class and it was all about opposites. We had two extra boys today for a total of 5 children (all between 18-36 months), so it was a little hectic, what with 5 active and excited children, but overall it felt great, and I was even sad when the class ended (that’s a first for my new job!!)!

This past week has been really encouraging for me overall. Besides getting used to my new job, I have also been noticing an improvement in my French. I think the main reason for that is because my confidence has grown. I haven’t been afraid to speak with others, even if I am unsure of the vocabulary or grammar…I’ve just been trying anyways! This is a huge thing for me as a perfectionist, because I typically don’t try to speak if I don’t already know how to say things correctly. And this morning, as I was speaking with one of the parents, she assumed I was English instead of American, because Americans have really strong accents but mine isn’t so strong apparently! Seriously, any compliment I receive about my accent is the best compliment I could ever desire, and I never forget them, either. Last month at Connect, one of my German friends was trying to help me pronounce bunten Abend (“talent show”–my German-speaking readers will have to tell me if I spelled that wrong!), and she said I pronounced it like a French person! You can only imagine how ecstatic that made me! And now that I feel more confident about my French, I am making Matt speak to me only in French today (he really prefers to speak in English, but whenever he does I just say, “Non, je comprends pas…” Ha), and I love it! I love catching myself thinking in French or even accidentally replying to someone in French when they ask me a question in English. It shows that I’m advancing.

So yeah, life is good. God has blessed my husband and I, and our life here in France, and I am so very thankful for everything :) Yesterday I babysat my niece, and we took some pictures that I feel describe my emotions perfectly…

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Have a good weekend, everyone!

The Low-Down on French Parties

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Yesterday Matt and I were at a surprise 30th birthday party for one of his longtime friends. Now, I have been living in France for a year and a half, and one thing I doubt I will ever get to used to about French culture is the fact that their parties, holiday meals, group gatherings, etc. last for hours. The problem I have with this is that most of that time is spent sitting at a table, and usually there are long waiting periods in-between courses (of which, there are 4-5: the aperitif, the main course, cheese, dessert, and coffee). I get restless very easily, so after 3+ hours sitting in the same seat, I become very agitated.

But this is part of French culture. Their culture is very strongly focused on their food, and it is quite normal and expected that when you go to someone’s house for a meal, or when you go to any type of party, you will be sitting, eating, and talking for hours on end. Americans do not do this. We are too fast-paced for this kind of lifestyle. This is why our culture is more focused on activities and shared experiences. All of our holidays involve eating, yes of course, but what else do we always do? We go places…we go see fireworks on the 4th of July, we go trick-or-treating for Halloween, we play football in-between our Thanksgiving Day courses, we go shopping or go to the movies during Christmas time. We never stay at the table from 1-7pm.

I love France. I love the more laid-back lifestyle and the adventuresome and travel-minded attitudes. I love the food! And I would love to one day even enjoy their table-dwelling parties and mealtimes. But right now, I prefer American celebrations, and that’s ok in my opinion since I am, you know, American.

And one last thing–I had a wonderful time at the party we went to yesterday, and that is probably because it was outside and we were free to get up and walk around! Plus we were able to catch up with some other friends whom we haven’t seen in a while. But I can definitely see myself slowly growing more accustomed to the “French way”, and that makes me very happy :)

(And another aside–French wedding receptions are much much more enjoyable, because there are plenty of games and activities throughout the night. I would even go so far as to say that they are probably a lot more fun than American weddings in that regard. I had an absolute blast at our French reception and at the only other French wedding I have attended. I just don’t want anyone to think that I find French parties, meals, celebrations, etc. to be awful because that couldn’t be further from the truth–I am just describing a part of the culture that is hard for me to adapt to. Ok, end of disclaimer!)

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Matt and I at a friend’s birthday party yesterday.

I am employed!

Posted in France by

Hello readers! I have been keeping a “secret” from most of you…at least a secret from the online world. Last month I heard of an organization in France called Les Petits Bilingues, an English school for children of all ages. It’s independent from the normal school system, although it does correspond with the school year and vacation times, and they also provide small group and one-on-one tutoring. The great thing (for me) about this place is that they only hire native English speakers. The awesome thing about this place is that they recently opened a center 5 minutes from our apartment! When I found this out I contacted them right away asking if there were any job openings, and within an hour or two I had revamped and sent over my resumé/CV and got an interview scheduled for that week!

Ok, let me just state that I had never considered teaching as a career option, not even in English or English Lit (my major). Teaching children, especially teenagers, is scary. And I, being a doubter, always ask myself these questions, “What if they ask a question that I don’t know the answer to?” “What if I can’t connect with them?” “What if…” What if, what if, what if. When I applied for this job, all those what if’s starting attacking me, but even though I had no experience in teaching English, I still stayed confident. I relied so much on summer daycare working experience I made in high school (seriously…never imagined having to put “Organized and oversaw snack time” on my resumé), and was incredibly relieved when the directrice asked me to come in a couple of days to shadow the different classes.

And I loved it! The first day I was with a group of about eight 4-6 year olds (my favorite!) and after the class ended I was in such high spirits and filled with the excitement of doing that everyday. The next day I was with a small group of 8-9 year olds, and there wasn’t much for me to do other than observe, but still, it was a good day. And after that, I talked with the directrice again, she drew up a contract for me (yay for French paperwork!), and just like that I got the job!

But because it is currently vacation time, I had a whole month off before starting and my official first day of teaching my own class is THIS coming Monday!!! Ready for the details?

  • I work Monday-Saturday, 10am-12pm
  • …with a group of TEN 4 & 6 year olds!
  • It’s still a vacation week, so I’ll be teaching the same curriculum as the other class I shadowed last month
  • And after this week my hours will change again: I’ll do some more training before the offical “rentrée” (Back to School time!) at the end of September.

Sounds pretty great, right?? I am slightly nervous, especially after having a semi-nightmare last night that I showed up to work with NOTHING prepared and got scolded by my boss… BUT, God is good, and He blessed me with this job, so I know He’ll continue to help me with it :)

Oh, and my boss also asked if I could do a one-on-one tutoring session with a 15 year old boy (YIKES!) Monday-Friday afternoon this week as well. But I think that’ll go just fine…she told me to focus on things he likes (like sports), and basically just talk about a specific country (like America), and bring some videos, magazines, card games, etc. Not too bad! I’ll have to follow up on this after next week!

Carte de Séjour & God’s Faithfulness!

Posted in Faith, France by

This is a post about God’s faithfulness. It’s also a post about how stressful living in a foreign country can be, but mostly it’s about how God really shows you when He wants you somewhere.

Most of you reading this probably do not know all about how I came to live in France. Long story short: my husband is French, and when we got engaged we kind of procrastinated on the fiancé visa, therefore we had to come up with other alternatives on how to legally get married. Moving to France a month after our wedding was actually the most practical and flexible way to go, since Matt could work and we would both be able to travel internationally. Fast-forward a year later to this past May: Matt has been approved for his green card and we are finishing up paperwork for that, he has a job he loves, I am much more adapted to living in France and, although I am by no means bilingual, I can now speak and understand a decent amount of French, and we enjoy spending time with our family and friends here. However, in June my visa was due to expire and I discovered two weeks in advance that I should have gone to renew it/apply for my carte de séjour three months before the expiration date! (Aside: a carte de séjour is the equivalent to an American green card) This was because I foolishly expected OFFI, the immigration organization I had been contacted by when I first moved here, to contact me again about it. But no, I now needed to get myself to the Prefecture ASAP, and for you Americans who are unfamiliar with the Prefecture, it is the DMV on steroids (you go there for identification cards and driver’s licenses, because they are not the same here, car-paperwork, green cards, work permits, basically anything related to immigration, and I even think associations have to register at the Prefecture as well). Imagine that your local DMV looks like The New York Stock Exchange on the inside, with people everywhere, numbers being announced on screens and intercoms, babies crying, you get the idea… (I kid, I kid…that’s just a little Dark Knight Rises humor for ya).

Anyway, after I realized the gravity of my situation, I panicked. I have never been one to react calmly in dire situations: I either avoid dealing with it, or I panic. However, over the past 5 or so years God has really been helping me to trust Him instead of panicking, and so, after my initial 10-second breakdown, I immediately had the urge to pray. And for the next three days I prayed HARD. I found all this out on a Monday, and we couldn’t go to the Prefecture until Thursday, so I had three days to either worry myself into developing an ulcer, or to fervently pray, fast, and seek God. And let me just say, for anyone with doubts: never underestimate the power of prayer. The Bible says:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ.” – Philippians 4:6-7

By the end of that Monday, I had already begun to feel this supernatural peace over myself and my visa situation. I had confidence in that fact that, no matter what happened, whether I was able to renew my visa or not, that God’s will would be done, and that’s what I prayed for. I could have simply prayed out, “God, PLEASE allow me to get my carte de séjour!” but I wanted more than that. I prayed, “God, if it is YOUR WILL (remember Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane? “Not as I will, but as You will.”), please allow me to get my carte de séjour…” And from that moment on I knew God was there no matter what the outcome.

Before I get back to what happened at the Prefecture on that Black Thursday (Ok, ok, that’s my last Stock Exchange joke), I have to say something about fasting, because I didn’t just pray unceasingly that week, I also fasted. Last semester during one of our Remix meetings (Remix is the student ministry we are involved with here in Grenoble), we discussed fasting. I came to understand that it is not depriving ourselves of things to please God, but it’s an act of expressing to God that we want Him more than anything else. And I just love that image, and so I fasted that week to express to God that, above all else, I wanted His will to be done, even if that meant I would have to go back to the U.S.

And I should tell you the list of things I prayed for before I went (and even during my visit) to the Prefecture:

  • That I would be able to receive my carte de sejour
  • That I would have all of the documents I needed
  • That I would at least be seen by someone (I read that in Paris, you can wait all day and not even be seen before closing time)
  • That the employees would be friendly, helpful, and compassionate (people with prior experience at the Prefecture or even the DMV, feel free to laugh)
  • That I would not have to pay any extra fees for being late
  • That Matt would be able to return to work in the afternoon (he only took half a day off, and he still had things to get done for a meeting the following day)
  • That my sister-in-law would be able to find someone to watch my niece for me while I was still waiting (I babysit her two afternoons a week, while her parents are at work)
  • That we would not get a parking ticket (because our meter expired ~20 minutes before we left)

So we arrived at the Prefecture at 9:15am, just fifteen minutes after opening time, and we were already #44 in line. I brought a book to keep me entertained during the wait, but all I could really do was look around and continue to pray for everything to go smoothly. Finally, after 5 long hours, we were seen, and let me spoil everything for you readers by saying that EVERYTHING ON MY PRAYER LIST WAS ANSWERED. EVERYTHING.

The agent who met with us was very friendly (what!?), and even compassionate because–and here’s the most amazing part of the story–although we were missing a couple of proofs of residency, she let us mail them to her after our visit. When does something like that ever happen? When can you go to the DMV, not having adequate proof of residency, and STILL get your driver’s license? I did not have to pay any extra fees, I was not declared to be a “situation irrégulière” (which could cause problems if/when I want to become a dual citizen)…I was given my récépissé (basically a temporary card that lasts for 3 months) and told I might have to come back and get it renewed if my actual carte de sejour does not arrive in time.

And on top of all that amazing news, my sister-in-law was able to find someone to cover babysitting for me (because if not, I guess she would have had to miss work or we would have had to leave the Prefecture early?), Matt did get to work later than he wished, but it turns out he didn’t have much to do after all, AND, although our parking meter had expired nearly half an hour before we left the Prefecture, there was no ticket (although there was an ad for a florist stuck in the wipers that nearly gave me a heart attack).

This all happened at the end of May, and yesterday I went back to renew my récépissé and it turns out that my actual card was ready and I only had to wait 45 minutes to pick it up and pay the 106€ fee (which is still cheaper than the American green card fees we’re paying for Matt)!

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Finally! I no longer have to carry my passport around! AND, it’s much smaller than a regular French ID card as well! Much more practical.

And what did I learn from all of this? That God is faithful. That He provides. That if He wants you to be somewhere (like France), He will make it happen (by bestowing upon you more than enough grace). That there is NO prayer request too little, too insignificant, too impossible that He will not hear. That prayer and fasting are powerful, and they deepen our relationship with God. That the French system is not as scary and unforgiving as the internet will have you believe. And lastly, I finally realized that God wants us here in France, and although we were planning on being  back in the States by Christmastime, I think we’ll be holding off on that for a little while :)

So there you have it. I know this was long, but I hope it was entertaining and inspiring enough. And for anyone who is in the process of getting their own carte de séjour, please feel free to ask me any questions about my experience, or even for my advice (but definitely do things a lot sooner than I did!).

May in Grenoble, or “Why is it still winter?”

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Well, I recently wrote about why I didn’t enjoy April here, because of the cold, windy, and rainy weather. It turns out that May was exactly the same, only weirder, because we also had snow and hail. In May.

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Fresh snow on May 25th, and this isn’t even that high!

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More snow…

But now it is June and, even though it has been raining nearly every evening, we officially have warm weather! And our back yard was finished last week: the dirt was leveled, they put in some stairs as well as dividing fences between each apartment, and now the grass is starting to spring up, so soon Solo will be able to play around out there. And it won’t matter how early he wants to go pee in the morning, I’ll just have to open the door. Last week we even had our first cook-out of the year!

Instagram picture of our homemade burgers and sweet potato fries!

Last month we also went on a camping trip with Remix to celebrate one of the many holidays/long weekends they have here in France. I have been wanting to go camping for months now, and the weather actually stayed decent, even if it there was a light shower.

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At this camping trip Matt happened to be the only French person there! Most of Remix is made up of internationals, like Stephie (intern from Germany), Dora (student from Hungary), and Bethany (XA pastor visiting from Ohio).

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Solo loves camping too!

On the camping trip we had a Croquet tournament. Yes, I get excited about things like that, and especially since I came from behind (twice) and got 2nd overall! And also, I’m proud of things like that. I haven’t played croquet in over ten years, and even back then I was horrible. But it’s a fun yard game to play and Matt and I are looking to buy a croquet set of our own to play at the park or at his parents’ house this summer.

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This was the first wicket and this is where everyone passed me while I failed miserably to make it through. But I had my comeback eventually.

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More croquet…

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Artsy shot…

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Matt played, too, when he wasn’t keeping Solo from chasing after the balls.

Besides our exciting croquet tournament, we also went on a hike which was lovely. We made it to this local museum where I swear The Sound of Music could have been filmed.

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I just feel like running towards the camera…

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And again… Also, this was next to a museum for a monastery, how fitting.

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: )

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Cave “exploring”

And this was priceless:

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This must be Darth Vader’s summer mountain house.

So now it’s June and our summer is full with lots of fun activities, the biggest one being that we’re spending 10 days in Germany for an SFC (Students for Christ) conference! More on that next month.

Why I Don’t Like April

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In my last post, I talked about how last weekend Matt and I wanted to go hiking and maybe do some “crafts” for the home. Well…it rained. All week it was sunny and hot and then the weekend rolls around and it’s cold, foggy, and rainy outside. And today I wake up to a light drizzle again! This time it’s supposed to rain  most of next week, too. The weather app on my phone is looking bleak…

But Matt tells me this is how April is here. A random cycle of hot sunny days, foggy rainy ones, and snow! Yay. I live for the few days that feel like spring…but at least there are flowers everywhere! Except for that tree I loved. It’s full of leaves now.

Some things we’ve been up to lately: I’m still babysitting my 19-month old niece and she has entered the “No” phase! But overall she’s a good baby, and she tells you exactly what she wants so it’s not so bad! She has also started telling Solo to stay, assieds (sit), and au pied (heel)! She has even told her dad to stay!!! Also, we saw Iron Man 3 the other night (IN ENGLISH!) and I loved it. You Americans will have to go see it next week!

So, to make up for this yucky weather, I’m going to post a “glamour shoot” I did with Solo two weeks ago. Enjoy!

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He really dislikes being in the sun, so this was him posing under a tree, with some leaf stuck in his teeth.

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Our mountain pup “in the meadow”

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Fun fact: there are two soccer fields at this park (you can see the more professional one in the back), and Solo is terrified of the games…something about the whistling and all of the people yelling and running around. I’m sure Matt has something to do with this since he, too, hates soccer…

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And this is his “Ok, no more pictures!” pose

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Love this view!

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Not a cloud in the sky…

Life in St. Ismier!

Posted in France, Married Life by

So…I’m horrible at blogging, or at least I’m horrible at keeping up with it. I know it’s been 2 months since my last post, but FINALLY, here are some pictures from our new apartment (disclaimer: Solo photo bombed most of these pictures):

Let’s start with the terrace! There’s not much out there, but I absolutely love being able to read outside and put the laundry out to dry (it’s funny how I used to hate when my dad made us hang out laundry outside when I was younger…now I prefer it). And I know Solo loves laying out there, too.

I just love being able to keep these doors open all day! It will look even lovelier outside once the grass is put it.

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Our little camping chairs… When we have the money, we’re going to buy a wooden table and chairs to stick out here for summer barbecues!!

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Our neighbors on the other side of the terrace also have a dog, and he likes to bark and get Solo riled up.

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And this is our view! Of course it will look much prettier after they install the grass, but it’s already MUCH better than the view from our last apartment (and it’s also much quieter out here too!)

Next, the kitchen:

I love the lights under the cabinets, but they get HOT! I’ve burned myself a couple of times while trying to turn them off.

The messier side of our kitchen, with the bag of recyclables I still need to take out. Also featured is artwork from our 18-month-old niece.

The living room:

I have been longing for a red couch for years! I was unbelievably excited when Matt brought this one home, and it came with an ottoman that we can store all of our DVDs in.

Our entertainment center is currently working as a shelf, until we’re able to afford a TV. And for anyone wondering, I did have my tea and chocolate right after taking these photos.

Solo insisted on being apart of this picture. This is part of our living room/entry way. Fun fact: those two wicker chairs, which we plan on painting this weekend, belonged to Matt’s great-grandmother! We pretty much placed make-shift pillows on them, ha!

Another view of the hallway. I just love Solo’s creepiness here…

The entryway, featuring a hopeful puppy: “Are ya gonna take me out now?!”

The bathroom:

Although it’s hard to tell in these pictures, our bathroom is pretty large. And it’s “American-styled,” meaning the toilet is with the shower. And yes, there are Mickey/Minnie accents in every single room.

I just love that our bathroom airs out after every shower. Our last bathroom had no ventilation, so it smelled like a humid locker room all the time (but more like a ladies locker room as opposed to a football team’s).

This is Solo’s corner. He literally whined at me because he wasn’t in the pictures, so I had to snap this one to satisfy him.

And lastly, our bedroom. I still have some decorative things to put up on the wall above the bed, but I’ll save that for another time:

Our bedroom is very spacious, also, but it was hard to show that with the pictures. Here’s the view from our bedroom door.

The bedroom and some of Matt’s clothes. When we first moved in he had all of his shirts hanging up on that rack and early one morning, just after he left for work, the entire thing fell on top of me in my sleep. Now all of his shirts are in the closet with my clothes…
And before anyone starts freaking out, yes that is a baby crib and changing table. It’s for when I babysit my niece, not for our baby that we didn’t tell you about (there’s no baby on the way!).

Of course Solo had to get into this picture, too. And, while I was uploading these pictures from the bedroom, Matt came home, grabbed a drink, and then proceeded to spill it on the bed while he was sitting next to me. So, it’s back to the flowery comforter…

And here is the view from our bedroom window:

It’s not the best view of the mountains, but I’ll take it! And look at that treeeeee! Those cherry blossom trees are all over our neighborhood.

Yes, that is a ski station!

I’ve already told Matt that one day we will have a nice, large yard and these trees in front of every window!

We still have some things to do around here, like paint our coffee table and our two wicker chairs, and hopefully, now that it is officially spring, the grass will be put in soon!!! I am incredibly excited about that, and about grilling hamburgers and eating on our future patio furniture. My mom sent me some herb seeds so sometime this week I will also be planting those! I have always wanted a little garden, and now I’m finally going to do it!

Can’t wait to start growing these!

So Spring is my favorite season, although in 6 months I will be saying the same thing about Autumn. But it is SO NICE to be able to have the windows and doors open all day, to be able to hear the birds singing and see flowers everywhere, and it is also nice to not have to wear a jacket 24/7! In Florida spring lasts maybe 2 weeks, and then it’s full on summer until Thanksgiving; but here we actually have 3 months of each season!

Later this week, I will post some more springtime photos. And I promise when I say “later this week” I do mean this week and not two months from now =P

Updates, Updates, Updates!

Posted in France, Married Life by

I never posted about New Years Eve, even though I had written up nearly an entire post, but now it just seems too late to post it. HOWEVER, I have some exciting news: WE ARE MOVING! No, not back to the U.S. (not yet, at least). We’re moving to a bigger apartment in a nearby town called Saint Ismier.

We have been really blessed by our current apartment in La Tronche. Matt found it within a week of moving back to France. It was brand new, completely furnished, and in a really nice location. We are in tram or walking distance to everything we need, which was perfect before we had a car. And we live right along the river (plus for Solo) which has a gorgeous view of the mountains (plus for everyone!). Unfortunately, we feel we have outgrown this little studio apartment. While having a dog is a big part of that, I feel that even if it was just the two of us we would still feel the same. It has become a pain having to roll up and pull a cover over our bed every-single-day. It takes “making the bed” to a whole new level. And our new apartment has a small yard so no more having to get dressed and bundled up to take Solo to the park every morning (you can’t just walk out in pajamas here in France…).

So our new place! Here are all the details:

  • It has a kitchen, living/dining area, separate bedroom, hall closet, and an “American style” bathroom (I call it that because the shower and the toilet are together. Usually over here they are separate).
  • THERE IS A DISHWASHER! I hate washing dishes. Matt usually does them because he likes to, but if there are any dirty dishes hanging out in the kitchen I feel like the whole place is a disaster zone. So with a dishwasher I shouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.
  • As I already said, there is a small yard and a nice sized terrace, which is covered.
  • The apartment is completely brand new. They are still doing construction on the outside buildings, and they haven’t put the grass in the yards yet.
  • Although we will no longer live within walking distance of Grenoble/the trams, there are plenty of buses around.
  • There is a grocery store (and a boulangerie) just around the corner, and that’s even better than here because right now I have to walk/ride the tram for 30 minutes to get to the store.
  • We get the keys on February 20th! I know it’s pretty soon; we found out a few weeks ago but I am just now getting around to blogging and telling everyone about it.

And here are some pictures! The ones from the agency aren’t very good quality but you get the idea.

The kitchen! It comes with a stove/oven and a dishwasher (it’s the small “cabinet” on the far left). Matt’s parents are giving us their old refrigerator too, which will go against the wall on the left.

The front of the apartment. There’s the front door and the hallway, the bathroom door is on the far left, and then you can see most of the living/dining space.

Bedroom picture 1: it’s pretty big! About half the size of our current studio apartment.

Bedroom picture 2: the window…pretty self-explanatory.

Bedroom picture 3: featuring my adorable niece!

Bathroom! There is also a lot of space in front of where the toilet is, and I love the brown tiles (it’s one of our favorite colors).

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Another bathroom picture, so you can see the sink area.

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A view of the living area and terrace. I am really excited about that door and the yard, and pretty much everything else here too!

A view of the back of the apartment from the yard. They have not yet put the grass in, probably because it’s winter. I’m hoping it will be there in the spring, though.

View of the left side of our yard. If you can make out that white thing near the bottom left of the picture, that’s about where the yard will end. They are going to install some dividing fences soon.

Sorry for the over exposure, but here is a view of the other side of our yard. If you can make out those baby trees, that’s where the other divider fence will be. So it’s a nice little yard!!

And, lastly, here is a view from our building. Like I said they are still doing construction. Everything is brand new!

I will definitely be posting more pictures and apartment updates within the next few weeks, once we’re settled and all. We are so thankful for all that God has provided us with and we are really excited about moving!

Christmas in France

Posted in France, Holidays, Married Life by

I know this post is a little overdue, but Matt finally started his new job so I have actually been a bit busy getting back into the routine of things and recovering from all the traveling we did last month. But here is how our Christmas went!

Literally 2 days (more like 36 hours) after getting home from our trip to Disney, we were off to spend a week in St. Sorlin with Matt’s family and with our sister-in-law’s family. Depending on how you celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas in the States, Christmas in France is pretty different. Normally, Matt’s family opens their presents on the 24th (my family does it late Christmas morning), but because some of us didn’t arrive until almost 9pm that night, we waited until the 25th. Instead we ate lots of French finger foods (veggies and small pieces of toast with olives, charcuterie, salmon, and foie gras…not my favorite things) and then played a gag gift exchange game that is sort of like Telephone, but you alternate between writing a sentence and drawing a picture to pass on. It was a lot of fun and since there were 11 of us playing, things were pretty crazy. We voted at the end for “best” gag gift, and the one Matt and I picked out won! It was hideous. The two gifts we got placed second, and we kept them because I love them!

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Christmas Eve treats

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Christmas ice cream logs

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Ok, the top is a deer head magnet, and we hung the ugly ornament around the deer’s antlers. It is currently, and proudly, hanging on our fridge!

We didn’t get to bed until around 1am and then–thanks to our 1-year-old niece–we were up before 6:30…yay! By 8am everyone was up and ready to start opening presents, which took up half of the tiny cabin space. My family, since there are only 5 of us, each take turns opening a present so that everyone can see. I prefer that way, or else I miss out on people’s gifts and reactions and it feels like half the fun is gone! But since there were so many of us, we only went one time around opening one present each and then it was noise and paper everywhere. Matt says that’s how they usually do things, but we take at least 45 minutes to open everything.

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Christmas with 12 people = tons of presents!

Some of our gifts: Matt finally got his 3DS that he’d been wanting all year and I got a Monet puzzle with a roll-up matt, a gift card for new clothes (which I desperately need!), some movies, and a snowglobe/music box that Matt bought be from Disney. It plays “I See the Light” from Tangled, which was the song Matt and I danced to at our wedding.

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And he forgot about his other presents after he opened this one…

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Our niece pushing around the Tigger toy we got her in her brand new stroller! So cute.

It snowed in St. Sorlin, but not nearly as much as in Bourg d’Oisans a month ago, and it was pretty warm so it started turning into slush…but Solo still had a lot of fun! We went sleigh riding, which Solo does not like. Something about us speeding away from him gets him all worked up! We also went skiing a little, and I picked it back up more than I thought I would.

After our week at St. Sorlin we went to visit Matt’s uncle’s family in Gap, where we also went skiing and I had a blast! We went up to where there weren’t many people and where the snow was great and it was the best time I have had while skiing so far. The first couple of times were no fun, but this time was great.

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Gorgeous! (Photo credit goes to Matt)

It was hard being away from my family for Christmas, that was the most difficult thing for me, especially since I haven’t seen them since May. But next year we are already planning on being in the States for Christmas! Hope you all had a wonderful time with your families, celebrating your own traditions and having fun spending time with loved ones!

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Our 2nd Christmas together!

DISNEYLAND!!!!!

Posted in France, Married Life, Travel by

Some of you may know, but for our 1st anniversary and Christmas, my parents paid for us to stay at Disneyland Paris for 3 days!! We’re both really big Disney geeks and I hadn’t been to this park yet so I was very excited to see it. It’s not as big as Walt Disney World, but there are some unique attractions there that I absolutely loved. So brace yourselves because this will probably be my longest blog yet (but there will be lots of pictures, too!).

So Paris is about 6 hours north of where we live, which is A LOT of driving time for natives here. In the U.S. 6 hours is nothing. It took 5 hours just to get from FSU to my home in Palm Bay, and I would visit just for the weekends. Taking the train would have been the more time reasonable option, but it is SUPER expensive to take the train: so driving it was! We left just before 7am and arrived at our hotel at 12:30pm. We stayed at a western-themed hotel called Hotel Cheyenne, and it wasn’t bad actually. It hasn’t been renovated in a while, but nothing was falling apart or anything. One of my favorite things about the resorts here in Paris is that they had breakfast that you had to make reservations for, so this actually made us get up early enough to make Extra Magic Hours at 8am. But every night we were so exhausted, we were sleeping by 10:30 at the latest. We stayed in the Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom Lodge when we went to WDW for our honeymoon, but they don’t have breakfast since it’s one of the villas.

You can sort of make out the Christmas decorations.

You can sort of make out the Christmas decorations.

The parks closed between 6 and 7pm the days we were there, so that gave us about 2 and a half days in the park total. The first day we spent at Disneyland Park, which is just like Magic Kingdom except Tomorrowland is called Discoveryland and they have Sleeping Beauty’s castle instead of Cinderella’s. It rained most of the time we were there but not too hard and Disney is still fun even in the rain. It wasn’t as packed at WDW is at this time of year, so we were able to do our favorite rides multiple times (like Buzz, which we did 5 times!). The castle is gorgeous. It’s smaller but I think it’s prettier than Cinderella’s castle.

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Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland Paris

Here is a list of some of the most memorable moments for me:

– Stitch Live! I didn’t want to talk about this one first, but it was my favorite thing and I can’t hold back! For those of you who have been to Turtle Talk with Crush at EPCOT, this is basically the same thing except with Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. He talks to adults as much as he talks to the kids, and he picked on me and Matt while we were there! It was hilarious–first he told me I was pretty and then when he found out I’m married he said, “Stand up, Maggie’s husband,” and made Matt get up and fight for me. But Stitch won because Matt couldn’t make two arms pop out from his sides haha. Then Stitch said, “Maggie and Stitch for-ever,” and later when he was leaving he stuck his tongue out at Matt and said that he loved me! It was so much fun, I love those type of attractions.

Not a good picture but the only one I had of Lilo & Stitch was from the cars parade.

Not a good picture but the only one I had of Lilo & Stitch was from the cars parade.

– Crush’s Coaster This was their Finding Nemo ride and it was a lot like Space Mountain. First you ride by Nemo and some friends and then you go through the boat with the sharks before you shoot out into the EAC, which is all dark and you twist around in your turtle shell. It was a lot of fun and definitely one of the biggest attractions.

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We sat in the back both times that we rode this ride.

– RC Racer This is basically a pirate ship ride but with the race car from Toy Story. I usually hate those rides but this time you’re harnessed in so you don’t move around as much. Even in the rain it was fun!

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This was so much fun! We even sat in the front row the second time.

– Sleeping Beauty’s Castle you can actually go into the castle where they tell the story of Sleeping beauty with stained glass and tapestry. They also have a dragon’s lair in the dungeon where you can see Maleficent.

Stained glass windows inside the castle.

Stained glass windows inside the castle.

The Sleeping Beauty tapestry had lights that twinkled and faded away!

The Sleeping Beauty tapestry had lights that twinkled and faded away!

– Star Tours it’s the original ride which was nice to experience again even though the new one in Orlando is incredible.

On our way to Endor!

On our way to Endor!

– It’s a Small World this ride was amazing. It’s newer so it’s prettier and they had it Christmas themed as well. The good thing about Disneyland Paris is that everything is very colorful because it rains a lot here, especially in the wintertime.

Colorful even at nighttime!

Colorful even at nighttime!

– Pirates of the Caribbean this is Matt’s favorite ride and it’s better than the one in Orlando because they have two drops and it goes through the Blue Lagoon restaurant which we were able to eat lunch at on Wednesday. There’s no Jack Sparrow cameo, but they have him at a character spot nearby.

I just love the look he makes here.

I just love the look he makes here.

Matt and Captain Hook.

Matt and Captain Hook.

– Disney Dreams light show this doesn’t compete with Wishes, but it was amazing in its own way. They are not allowed to do a lot of fireworks here (because the Parisians don’t like it), so they do a mixture with fireworks and a water/light show similar to Fantasmic. It was really nice to see because they do a lot of different songs that they don’t do at WDW, like songs from Hunchback of Notre Dame, Princess and the Frog, Mary Poppins, etc. And Peter Pan and Tinker Bell are the main characters for the park so Pan’s shadow was all over the place. We watched it twice but left while it was starting Thursday night.

It's blurry, but this is when they were prelighting the castle before the show started.

It’s blurry, but this is when they were prelighting the castle before the show started.

I loved the twinkling stars all over the place.

I loved the twinkling stars all over the place.

During "I've Got Friends On the Other Side" - there were gears turning everywhere.

During “I’ve Got Friends On the Other Side” – there were gears turning everywhere.

Not the best picture but I really like the fireworks here.

Not the best picture but I really like the fireworks here.

It's the 20th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris this year.

It’s the 20th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris this year.

All in all it was a magical trip and even the downsides (like the awful smelling popcorn that I won’t even write about) were overwhelmed by the fun things (like crepes and being flirted on by Stitch). It was a great vacation and we already started planning our next trip!

Minnie was there for Extra Magic Hours!

Minnie was there for Extra Magic Hours! I loved her dress.

Matt and I in the teacups.

Matt and I in the teacups.