Christmas Party at the School

Today was the Parents' Association's annual Christmas party for the families. There was food, games (including a potato sack race on the cobblestones of the courtyard...very French and very dangerous from an american perspective) and entertainment ( again gymnastics on the cobblestones...I sat and cringed!) It was all so fun. Even Nathan who announced that he was NOT looking forward to an afternoon of this stuff, had a great time! The performers were incredible...made even more so in my mind by the fact that they are a troop out of Paris that performs for children to raise money for the poor children in Columbia South America. So in the Christmas spirit of things!!

Being a dedicated parent, I spent the afternoon painting the very tiny cheeks of French children and singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"to them...they had never heard this song! By the end, I had all three of the American kids at the school (two are mine) singing this to them as well. I also spent the day practicing my French with the other mother that was helping with the face painting. It was all in all a very fun day.

More Pictures from Montpellier

Just click on any of these to see a larger picture. This is the plaza Comedie, the Opera House, the fountain of the Three Muses, the Polygone mall decorations and the kids at dinner.

Christmas in Montpellier

The pictures: Fun and games on the Tram. The Opera House all dressed up for the holidays. The park opposite the Opera House all lit up and shining.



We have Nathan's friend Ryan staying with us for a few days. I thought it would be fun to take the kids into town on a Friday night to give them a break...nothing I planned went well. The adventurous sounding idea to take the Tram instead of driving was dampened when after two stops, the train came to a halt for well over 30 minutes due to an accident somewhere on the line. I had complete anarchy to deal with...too far to walk back to the car and too far to walk to our stop. The kids were completely ready to jump off (mainly due to Nathan's dire need to relieve himself!) We finally got underway and it did turn out to be a really fun and easy way to get into town.

The lights of the city were spectacular...each street has a different design of lighting. There was a giant KLIEG light that put designs in light on all of the buildings in the main plaza...Comedie.

Unfortunately, the Christmas market was not opening until the next morning and all of the shops closed by the time we ate dinner. Oh well! I did try and it was better than the kids staying inside all night after a week of school.