Je Resterai à Paris

Bonjour All!

     Happy New Year! Bonne Année. So if you have been following my blog, you would have noticed that both my family and French family left for home or vacation last week. Which makes this week very slow and simple, and I had a lot of time to myself. So what did I do? I went to movies, practiced my writing, and worked on my French. By the time the family came back I was so excited to see them, and despite the lack of adventures, I still have a lot of stories. 

The Arc de Triomphe was very
protected on New Years

     Let’s start with New Years! Sara and I gathered some snacks and met up for some pre New Year chatting. Sorry no big exciting parties for me, I’m not exactly the big party type. Though I did want to see some fireworks! Our plan was to walk to the Eiffel Tower right before midnight, but everything online said that there would be no events there and when it started to rain we decided against it. We rang in the New Year with a whistle out the window and a firework show on my computer. Outside there were no sounds. We got one person who yelled “Bonne Année” when Sara whistled, but that was it. Eventually, we thought that there was no way that Paris had no events going on, and decided to venture out into the rain.

     Ten minutes later, and two train stops away, we were at the Champs-Elysees. It was very festive, but very crazy!! My goodness there were so many people there they closed down the whole street! There were police EVERYWHERE. They were protecting the Arc de Triomphe very carefully, and they had reason too. The people were so drunk and it felt very close to what a riot would be. We didn't stay long. There were a lot of men there, and we tried to stay close to other women when we would see them because the men very very friendly. Overall it was a fun experience! 

     I learned a great deal about myself this week. I struggled with a few things, and the lesson that I learned was how important my Patriarchal Blessing is to me. I read through it several times looking for answers to my prayers, and I found what I needed to know. It is rare that I pull out my Blessing, but every time that I do I am happy that I did.

The Star, after I trimmed the sides.  

     My week got much better when the family came home, and Saturday was the most fun I have ever had with the kids. Aimée got this cooking tool kit for Christmas, and she has been dying to use it. That was how we ended up with star shaped fried eggs for lunch. Basically it’s a cookie cutter with a handle on it that is placed on the pan, but they don’t really work. No matter what we did to prevent it, the eggs still ran out under the tool. Oh well. All that matters is that Aimée had a good time.

     After lunch I took the kids to the park, and played there for a while. Daniel was able to meet up with another little boy who ran around with him while they kicked a soccer ball around. Sadly, it was a bit drizzly, and of course he fell right into a muddy puddle. Seeing the mud made me miss mud volleyball with the ward. 

     Following that, we came home and Aimée wanted to play with her cooking kit again. Since Cecile said it was ok, we made a dessert. She chose to make these gummy things. They were easy, weird, and didn't taste very good. But she enjoyed them, so I guess that was nice.

     My brother Geoff showed me this app where you can make little movies and trailer for movies. I did that with the kids for the rest of the night. We made two trailers. One was for a train movie for Daniel, and one was for a spy movie for Aimée. I love making movies, and will spend HOURS working to get them just right. The nice thing about this app is that it sets everything up for you and all I needed to do was drop a few video clips in. Having two impatient hanging on your arm ready to watch their finished video made this feature work even better! The whole family LOVED it. Sadly, I still need to figure out how to put them on the computer. Turns out it was harder than I was expecting. I will try to put one on sometime.

Chandler in the fancy restaurant

    The family ended the day by going out to dinner. The restaurant was the nicest place I have ever seen! It was like walking onto a set of a movie. The whole place was black and white with gold decorations. The GIANT chandler was above the striking white couches. It was an Asian restaurant named Bon. It was SO nice and SO expensive. I order one of the cheapest things on the menu, but wow! The food was really good, and the environment was friendly. It was a great way to end the week.

     Today I let the family know that I would be delighted in staying with them for another year. Their reaction was not what I was expecting. Cecile turned to look at me with the biggest smile on her face saying “that is good news!” Alain JUMPED into the air yelling “YESS!” He started talking about all my options for school next year. Haha, good that they are excited. I am happy as well.  

This is what I see walking to Church. 

    I have had a request to translate my titles and explain why I chose them. Je resterai à Paris, means I will stay in Paris. I think the title is self explanatory for today's events.

     The kids were also excited, but they were a bit distracted by the spinach soup they were trying to eat. Not to mention that I had already discussed it with Aimée a bit. It was during this dinner that Aimée lost her temper because she thought the family was making fun of her for not wanting to eat her soup. My new goal: To help Aimée understand simple teasing without getting mad. Oh, and while I’m teaching lessons, I’m going to work on the kids sarcasm. They don’t understand sarcasm either.

     Tomorrow I go back to school, and I might start French tutoring. Maybe I can learn this language after all. Until next week!