In a desperate attempt to get current, and because we didn't do anything that was all that exciting recently, I'm going to attempt to write a single post which covers the time from December 10th until the 22nd.
December 10--Blaise and his parents and brother visit the Louvre.
December 11--Blaise's parents and brother leave for Atlanta.
December 12--Our trip to the library to get new books is complicated by the fact that the RER A is on strike. (Actually, it's still on strike, though things seem to be easing somewhat.)
December 13--Both the RER A and the RER E are on strike. We stay home.
December 14--Today is the beginning of the last week of school before Christmas break.
December 15--Blaise gets a letter with his social security number on it. Yippee! Now he has health coverage. (Actually, so do the rest of us, and we have all along, but he won't have to pay up front and get reimbursed any more.) Ezio's goggles get stolen at swimming, which is part of the regular school curriculum here.
December 16--The kids and I take the train into the city to go to the Cité des Enfants. All three kids go to the big kids section, which is overrun by centre de loisirs kids. (The centre de loisirs is the name given to the before/after school care, as well as the care given on Wednesdays and during school vacations. It's run at the schools by the municipality, and cost is entirely dependent on family size and income.)
December 17--Sapphire and Ezio have their Christmas lunch at school, complete with 3 different desserts, and venison terrine. Cherry's maternelle has a Christmas program after dinner. She is very excited to be in the program, and happily goes off to her classroom to line up before the program. When her class files out, she sees all the people in the audience, can't find us, and bursts into tears. She spends the rest of the program sitting on my lap. The rest of the kids sang very nicely (including a couple of 4 and 5 year olds who sang solos. I was impressed by how self possessed they were.) We get 3 inches of snow. In case you were wondering how Paris handles snow, the answer is "not very well".
December 18--Cherry wakes me up at 4:30 with the words, "Don't worry Mommy, I can throw up by myself." No school for her today. Today is the last day of school before Christmas vacation for the big kids.
December 19--Our plans to go to the kids' Christmas party at the American Library are cancelled because Cherry is still vomitting. Sapphire spends all day playing with Blanche. Blaise gets a letter telling him that his Carte de Séjour is ready to be picked up at the sous-préfecture.
December 20--Still sick. At least noone else seems to have gotten it.
December 21--Blaise takes the train and bus to the sous-préfecture because the sidewalks are icy. Cherry and Ezio and I walk up to the Mairie (town hall) to pay the kids' lunch bill for November. We also are finally able to complete the social security applications for the kids and for me, because we now have a letter with Blaise's social security number. There is a beautiful fôret de Noël in front of the Mairie. Afterwards we go to the playground at the park behind the town hall, and discover that it is closed. (All the big playgrounds are closed on Mondays for maintenance, a fact which I had forgotten.)
December 22--Blanche is grounded, which means that she can't play with Sapphire. We try to go to both the Parc des Epivans and the Parc Hôtel de Ville, but they are both locked (and it isn't Monday). Perhaps they are worried about someone getting hurt in the snow?
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