Three(eight really) French Hens

While in London, we found and bought a  lovely book(signed too) for MK for Christmas titled The Twelve Days Of Christmas by Jane Ray.  The illustrations are just beautiful and the girls were inspired to paint their own hens

 Here's a crazy hen

And even a picasso hen

There are more to finish and after I think they'll look fun in the kitchen

Christmas Present for us..Hang On It Coat Rack

 We had a late Christmas present delivered this morning here at the crack of dawn, something just for Alain and I, something useful but so lovely and it's pink.

I just needed a drill and a screwdriver (note for Alain...tidy up your tools please)

 And put it between the stairs and bannister, just enough place for it.  It's by the designers at Normann Copenhagen and comes in several colours, and for some crazy reason pink just appealed and I'm so glad it did

 Only room for five or six coats, I have three I wear a lot and Alain just two, one of which he's wearing today and the other one is with all the mess in the mud room....arghhh

Off to the DIY shop this morning to get sand paper and wood for mud room. Yes I'm motivated.

And Alain has been to the town hall and will now be able to vote in the next election here in France....we even have appointments for the children to get all their vaccinations up to date...

yippee.

To do list

Sometimes (most times) we put things off doing things, and of late this is becoming problematic. So I thought, maybe if we write what we want or need to get done down (or type in this case), and tick them off as or when we get things done, it might just force us to actually do it.
Here goes with our list of things to do before the 1st of January


write to or phone loved ones( that I haven't had time to do..shame on me)  DONE and happy


buy knobs for Alexis' chest of drawers (poor boy has a hard life opening these drawersDone took ages too


read at least one book 


run 5km in less that 25 minutes (not on the flat..so far got it down to 27minutes)


Finish mud room ( highly improbable) started again but need more sand paper etc so stopped


buy frames from Ikea


Put up Charlotte's remaining present on wall  10.35 going to find hammer, but Charlotte is still sleeping....DONE and she's awake


phone bank and cancel direct debit (we've finished paying..yippeee)


Get Alain to get out of bed and go back to work after a longish Christmas break Done and missing him already


Read my emails and text messages  Done phew, that took some time


Change beds on top floor (gaby, alexis, mk) Done

London: Somerset House and Covent Garden

After spending our first day in London shopping, the next two days were to be spent doing the usual tourist thing.

All seven of us walked from the hotel till Somerset House. It took twenty minutes and a quick stop at Boots on the way (one of Charlotte's favourite shops now....in London they're dotted all over the place)

Somerset House was beautiful, sitting on Thames, with a lovely open air skating ring there over the festive period...that was fully booked when we tried to reserve via internet.

The children found the visit boring, and we too, were disappointed, but

we did get a nice view upon leaving of The London Eye, and later on, after Covent Garden, that's where we were going to go.

 Despite the fairly mild weather, Covent garden had a very Christmassy feel.

Just because the weather wasn't freezing cold, it doesn't mean that you'd want to strip down to your underwear like this street entertainer. We left him to it, with his funny Father Christmas boxers and his knife juggling, and we went to eat round the corner and Wahaca (Mexican Restaurant) that we'd been to a couple of years ago and liked it, only this time it just got better and better.

Belated Merry Christmas

Wow, things have been crazy around here and I've got a couple of minutes before I have to dash out.

 We were lucky enough to spend a couple of days in London before Christmas.

 This tree was built using Lego bricks, it was awesome. You'll have to get yourself off to St Pancras if you want to see it, before it's dismantled...I wonder how they do that?

 First mince pie, photo isn't great, but the mince pie was yummy...New favourite place for cakes " Peyton & Byrne...

MK preparing for two more crazy days in London.  The Ridgemount Hotel just gets better and better and really reasonably priced too.

Charlotte au Chocolat blanc avec Monsieur biscuits

 Remember I talked about the magazine, Papillote? Well here's that Charlotte I planned on making, it's a little late, but I did it, moreover Alexis and I did, because he had no school today as his teacher was on strike  (many teachers aren't happy with measures that will allow heads to assess them, giving them less or more in terms of pay rises).

 First we melted some white chocolate and then incorporated a juice of an orange, whipped up so cream and added some chocolate marbles (that incidentally melted...wasn't supposed to happen)...Oh yes, I forgot that we added some gelatin.

 We put some Monsieur biscuits around a mold, then some shortbread biscuits for the base.

Poured the white chocolate mixture into the mold and left it to set for several hours.

 And then these poor little men didn't last for long, especially this one,which fell into the hands of Charlotte

ànd here's Charlotte sporting a new hair colour (nothing to do with me) I'll talk about this another time.

And it between making this Charlotte and eating it, guess what? The older ones played Cluedo with the younger ones....This happens only once in a blue moon.

Christmas Wreath...homemade and fast

Your eyes aren't deceiving you, my wreath isn't quite symmetric, but I wanted something fast to dress the front door, until perhaps I find something better.  Lets hope it doesn't get blown away tonight as apparently a big storm is on its way.