2010 en France

The Fellmann Family spent New Year's with Denis's parents and his mother's 3 sisters and spouses along with 3 of Denis's cousins. The older crowd parties harder than we do. They finally left when I excused myself to put on my pajamas at around 2:45 am knowing that Xavier would be up at 6:30/7 no matter what. Etienne did ring in the New Year staying up until about 1am and then asking me could he please go to bed. Denis was reminded of his childhood and celebrating with family, and that is priceless. Also, he and I were able to get away for 3 nights to "Les Violettes" hotel, spa, and gourmet restaurant in Jungholtz, Alsace. It's only about 1/2 hour away from his house, so I was comfortable leaving the boys (Xavier for the first time ever overnight). We needed the time together and the rest. It was wonderful!!!

Now we are back in Sergy and I am having trouble keeping the house warm. The main source of heat is the chimney, and starting a fire turns out to be more difficult than I thought. Denis usually does it in the morning and then I just add logs. But, for instance this morning I was out for 3 hours and came back to a cold fireplace and house. It's not so bad because he will be here in a couple of hours to tend to the fire tonight HOWEVER he leaves next week for 4 nights for a conference in Heidelberg. I know I am capable of dealing with the fireplace, electrical outages, shoveling the car out, etc. but I'm not sure I can do all of this while feeding, dressing, and bathing the boys at the same time. I'm in the process of gathering phone numbers in case of an emergency.

We have beautiful snow today and several children and their siblings have been arriving at the village school by sled. We are a little far and I am too cold to attempt this, but it is charming. Tomorrow is Wednesday and I am going to be adventurous and let the boys go outside to play. I must go by some sleds this evening though. The boys are back to sleeping in the same room and that means the parents are also sleeping in the same room. Routine gradually sets back in, and as I always say kids thrive on routine. One more month until our trip to Chicago- counting the days!