Snapshots of Paris

Merry Christmas to you all!!!! We trust you and your loved ones are enjoying the focus on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in these very special days leading up to Christmas. We, too, are enjoying celebrating and making new traditions too...

Yesterday we hosted our first annual American Christmas Cookie bake. It was such a wonderful event we plan to make it a tradition! We had 3 of Lena's friends from school over to bake cookies, and then invited their families to come to taste our creations and visit for a while. In total, we hosted 12 people. It was great fun. Here's a photo of the girls decorating sugar cookies:



These gals had never made Christmas cookies before, but they surely caught on fast. They followed directions beautifully, worked very hard (we made Snickerdoodles, Rice Krispie Treats and decorated sugar cookies), and they laughed like crazy!!! So very fun.

It was a joy to visit with the parents of these girls. We had the opportunity to thank them for their daughters' kindness towards Lena...and to wish them all a Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel), too! We believe the doors were opened wide for lots more interaction with these families in the future. Yeah!!!!

Now, I thought I would show you a French Christmas tree. This one is on the stage at our church.


Do you see the bottom of the tree? It's placed into a log which is cut in half. This means that there is no bassin for water. That's right! No watering a Christmas tree here in France. Interesting, huh. Makes you wonder why we water ours, doesn't it. :-)

Tonight we finally made it to the Champs-Elysees to see the lights and the Christmas Market that lines the street. Here are some photos:


I have to admit that visiting the Champs-Elysees was almost magical. We emerged from the Metro to find that the lights were not on yet. We stood on the side of the road for about a minute trying to figure out what to do. We decided to cross the street. Just when we got to the middle of the street (the best view of everything), the lights came on! We couldn't have planned it better!

More photos:




Then, after freezing on the Champs-Elysees (it dipped below zero...or to you all, 22 degrees F... burrr!), we went to our church's Carol Sing. It was wonderful! Those of you who are "purists" out there, would have loved this evening. World famous opera singers and a really excellent choir singing an English-style Christmas carol service. A little piece of heaven. Here are a few photos:


This next photo is of the organ at the back of the church. This is not our church's building. Our church has 5 services on the weekend and the building is not big enough to hold all the people who attend at one time. So, we had the service in this church building where a Reformed church meets so that our entire church could attend the Carol sing together...plus invite friends. The place was packed.

The balcony...the kids and I went up and checked it out! Very cool.


Plus, God's Word etched in stone on the wall...in French! I love it!


And, the Christmas Markets. They've popped up near malls, in open squares and on the Champs-Elysees. Here are some of the booths by a mall near my school....



It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! :-)

Now, for on a very different note, I would like to share a video with you. My (Jill) parent's will not be able to visit us here in Paris, so I have been making videos of our lives here and have been sending them to my parents to watch. I decided to make one video with some snapshots of our lives here in Paris to share with you all. So, here it is. It's a 9 minute video that shows many things that are now an everyday part of our lives. (Just click on the link below to go to the movie which is hosted on You Tube...or copy this internet address into your browser.) I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdsZeJb5K5w

Au revoir!