Baby Photo Shoot

The baby girl (7 1/2 months) where I work is just TOO cute sometimes! In the last six weeks, her range of vocal, as well as facial, expressions has increased dramatically. (She has a belly-laugh-slash-baby-giggle that is adorable!) I sat her down the other evening and within a matter of minutes had snapped this series. Enjoy!










"You don't say!"


And the best one of them all...

*drumroll*

(Another) Happy Feast Day

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!!

This is usually a celebrated feast in my family... but right now, I feel about as far away from Mexican food, culture, and traditions as one can get!! Nonetheless, a very happy feast day to you all!

More Observations on the French Way of Living

(Manners Edition)

Please bear in mind that these are generalities that I have observed and are by no means to be taken as statistics out of an etiquette book! :)

* In France, it is bad manners not to have both hands on the table (in direct contradiction to the American version of table etiquette)! Children are constantly reminded, "Met tes mains sur la table."

* On the other hand, it is NOT bad manners to put your elbows on the table. This is preferable to having your hands beneath the table, in your lap.

* In France, it is bad manners to put your portion of bread on your plate. It must be placed on the table next to your plate, except on very special or formal occasions when it is placed on a little bread plate provided for just that purpose.

* This portion of bread (and YUMMY bread it is too!) must be torn into bite-size pieces before being eaten. To bite directly off the piece of bread is considered eating like animals. (They have a point...)

* In France, it is bad manners to push food onto your fork or spoon with your knife. Knives are for cutting and that seems to be their sole purpose. The aforementioned (and ever-present) bread - in bite-size pieces, mind you! - must be used for the task.

* In France, one does not take a drink of any sort with their soup (first course). This seems to be very wrong. In some cases, glasses are not even put on the table until the soup has been cleared away.

* And when it comes to restaurants, do not tip your waiter (should you happen to be in restaurant in France, that is). The tip is factored into the total before you're billed and an additional tip is not expected.

Donc, voilà!

It's incredible how much can differ between two "first world," western countries!!

Happy Feast Day

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!!!!

Nearly Noel

20 days until my 21st Christmas! How the time does fly!

This year will be the first Christmas I've spent away from home... but, fortunately, I won't be entirely without family. Rose and I will be spending Christmas week in the Swiss Alps!! I bought the train tickets yesterday. We'll arrive there the evening of December 23rd. It'll be so nice to see snow again (it's been in the 50's around here). :)

I'm way behind on Christmas shopping (the little I'm able to do this year, what with very little time to go shopping and very little money to go shopping with) - as in, I've hardly started at all - but I have ideas! :)
And in the meantime, I'm trying to make a good Advent of it...

Hope your Advents are off to a good start! God bless!

~Until the next time~

What About You?

Considering there are nearly 300,000,000 people in the U.S., I AM pretty "unique" after all, LOL!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 137 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everybody (at least, everybody in the States :)) has a very good Thanksgiving Day tomorrow! Unfortunately, I won't be having Thanksgiving celebrations over here, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about it. So y'all have an extra good one for me, ya hear?? :)


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!


Signing off from France~

I Got Flowers Today!!!

Yes, I did! I got flowers today!! From a BOY!!!







Nevermind that the boy was five years old and they were lego flowers.
...Hey! You weren't supposed to read the fine print!











Had you going for a minute there, didn't I??

A Few Observations on the French Way of Living

These are just some things that I've noticed about life over here in France and wanted to "jot down" so I could glance back at them later... they are observations I have made based on staying with a few, unrelated, very different French families. All of these are to be taken preceded by "IN GENERAL." ;)

* The French have towels to dry dishes and towels to dry your hands. The distinction is very important. (I've never seen this in the States, but maybe that's only because I haven't lived with very many American families besides my own! :))

* The French eat until they are not hungry anymore - not necessarily until they're full. (Either that or they have smaller stomachs than we Americans, lol!)

* The French always have something to finish the meal - we would consider it dessert, but it is lighter and usually not as sweet as our standard desserts. Sometimes it's natural yogurt; sometimes it's bread and cheese; sometimes it's fruit.

* The French have their sweetest food of the day at goûter (their afternoon snack)... oftentimes, they have bread, jam or honey, chocolate, and water with "sirop" in it. (I have never seen any of them eat anything chocolate after dinner... and only rarely after lunch.)

* The French (are you keeping in mind that phrase: "IN GENERAL" ?? :)) start their work day later than Americans and end it significantly later. It seems that it is not unusual for the father of the family to get home at 8:30 pm... and in some cases, that's early.

* The French (at home) work consistently through the lunch hour and then break for most of the afternoon, getting into gear again after goûter (i.e. about 5 or 5:30 pm). I think this is much like the Mexican siesta... and, in my opinion, is quite humane. :D

End of observations for the time being... I'm sure there are others that I've thought of, but they elude me at the moment.

Back Soon!!

Hello from Gap, France!! I've spent the past week in Gap - a small city in the French Alps (très jolie!) and the week before that in a 13th century château 30 minutes outside of Lyon... also very pretty!! So it's been a rather adventuresome two weeks and the next week foretells more adventures, but I don't have much time at the moment. I hope to be back to relate a few of the highlights in the near future.

Until then, tout de bon!