Joyeux Noël

Hope this note finds you cozy with family, enjoying good food and feeling the spirit of celebration and compassion.

We finally buckled and bought a Christmas tree. It's only little, the same height as Callum, with very random branches coming out at odd angles. Callum loves it. We decorated it with his stuffed creatures. He was so excited. We didn't bring any of our decorations to France because we assumed we'd be spending Christmas in the U.K. Ah well, we'll be up there sometime in 2010. We're excited to meet our new niece, Murron, who is in Scotland, and to spend time with family who we've been getting to know better since our transplant to Europe.

Callum's new expression is, "It was toughicult."

Schneider had a children's Christmas party and Callum participated in the circus school they offered. He stood on a big ball, learned to sit on a trapeze, spun a plastic plate on a stick and walked on a wire. He enjoyed it so much. The drama and balance was right up his alley. He also had cotton candy, which he's been asking for for about a year. They had nutella cotton candy, sans food colouring. Can you imagine the look of ecstasy on his sticky face?

Callum is doing well ... now. There has been bullying in school, very unpleasant. 5 kids ganged up on him at school, punched him in the face. We talked with the teacher at the time but I'm meeting with the principle and teacher in January to discuss strategy and prevention. A work colleague is coming with me to interpret. Also, we've found out about a public international school - it doesn't charge extra. He could potentially start attending next year (they start at age 6 - grade 1). He would do one hour a day in English, but more importantly kids there would understand what he is going through. Other than the bullying, school is O.K. He's learning to print, to sing in French and is proud of his monster and tadpole drawings. He read his first words the other day - Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Go Transformers go! He loves printing the letter "R", gets a kick out of "K" and his favourite numbers are currently 10 and 11. His mastery of the English language is interesting, as he spends more time talking with adults than kids his descriptions of his emotions sound particularly mature. His French is coming along: though his comprehension still far outweighs his willingness to speak French, when he does speak his pronunciation is far better than that of his parents.

Callum is ecstatic to be on holidays. We're taking him sledding tomorrow. He is completely over his Grippe A (H1N1) flu. The doctor says that's what we had for sure. Colin has strep throat and is sleeping extra hours, but otherwise he's O.K. He's becoming more relaxed, holidays always help. I worked until the Tuesday before Christmas and then we had five days off together as a family. It was nice to have some family time. Callum loves having his dad around - his hero.

My work is getting better. I have decided to be someone that people love working with, I've studied grammar diligently and can now field questions on gerund, past continuous grammar and frequency adverbs. I just wish I was learning French as fast as my students are learning English. Language acquisition is a constant frustration for me. It's brought me to my knees a few times. I can get by, but when I witness the courage of my kid in attending his all-French school for 6 - 8 hours a day, I become determined all over again to acquire this language.

Tomorrow we're having two friends over for Christmas dinner. They couldn't go home to England for holidays because the fellow of the couple has to work Christmas day. And on Saturday a Canadian friend of mine (who lives in Edinburgh) arrives for a week. We're also taking care of Colin's boss's cat for three weeks. Busy household.

Instead of buying Christmas presents for each other we took a road trip with two friends for three days. We shared the gas and found a cheap place to stay on a farm in northern France. We visited the Alsace-Lorraine region. It was incredible. We visited little villages with great ambiance, wonderful Christmas markets and even better mulled wine. Loved the ginger cookies, the timbered houses and the vineyards. (Check out the photos below.) It wouldn't have been affordable if our friends had not invited us. We were able to return the favour by offering them a place to stay for a couple of nights (they had tried to buy a house, the loan fell through but they had already given up their apartment so they had no place to live - that's why they wanted to go on a road trip!). Callum loved it because they are generous fun people AND they have a two year old dog - she's part Tibetan Spaniel. Cute, silky and quite feisty (a little bit unreliable in the biting department).

I don't know how I managed it, but I did not lose any weight while not eating and suffering from the flu, and Christmas has already attacked my ass.
My new year's resolutions are to look good in a bathing suit by summer, to take Colin on dates to refresh his spirit, and to cause the bullying at Callum's school to cease. I'll write on them in more detail in the New Year.

We are missing you this Christmas. I'm feeling quite nostalgic about it.

However you celebrate and whatever you believe, have a wonderful time this holiday season.

Much love, Ramona