It's officially Christmas time here in Denain, both on the streets and here in our flat. After a successful expat Thanksgiving, complete with American, German, and English assistants, imported canned pumpkin, and a turkey so freshly butchered (according to Halaal tradition of course) that it still had feathers; the Sapp/Schemahorn Christmas tree is erected in the living room, bringing life to our cave-like apartment.
I have to admit that this has been a quite difficult week. I really missed my family over the holiday, our assistants dinner was fun- but I want to spend Thanksgiving with the people I love most; thus I have not been in the best of moods (especially where French kids are concerned), so the illumination of our city streets has been a godsend. We purchased a 9euro tree at our local discount store, "Incroyable," and outfitted it with assorted glittering ornaments. Everything is covered with spangles here for Christmas, including the matching sparkly gold knife, fork, and spoon that apparently no French tree is without. They are everywhere in every color.
Local Frenchies have not let us down in the least. There are chaser lights in all colors, "Joyeux Fêtes!" luminaries, and the traditional Santa Clauses perched atop roofs and hanging from windows. Whereas American Christmas lights tend toward a few traditional colors: red, green, clear; the French mix it up with a splash of orange, or a little fuschia for zest. Our evening jaunt to the bakery is now a stroll through a regular winter wonderland. The freezing temperatures help.
As a side note: Kade is growing a cyst currently the size of a marble, but we're hoping it will grow to robin's egg size before Christmas. After watching youtube's offerings on home cyst removal, we've decided to wait for socialized health care to kick in. How big can it get in a month?
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2 comments:
I want to be where you are. We're bad and haven't even talked about putting up our decorations.
I think Matt's idea about having a huge Thanksgiving-esque get together when we all come back sounds like an excellent idea. I missed everyone a lot over the holiday too. And now I'm fighting a wicked cold. Not a giant cyst, but...
Giant hugs and kisses from Spain.
PS I enjoyed the video chat the other day. We should do it again. But after I get better, cuz right now I look like death.
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