MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Our living room is covered with legos, darts and various types of wrapping. It's been a good Christmas here in the Pederson home.
We enjoyed a service at the International church this afternoon. It was great to get out on this fine day in Paris and worship our Savior.
There's no doubt - God has blessed us in sooooo many ways!
I have two things to share today.
The first is for my parents especially. Well, actually, for my Mom specifically.
In case you don't know, my Mom is a very accomplished artist. She began formal art lessons when I was 3 years old (I'm the youngest of 4 kids and I understand her free time grew enough to enter art classes when I finally arrived at this age). As a result, most of my growing up years were filled with mini (or not-so-mini if I was showing patience and interest) art lessons.
I have always enjoyed art. My Mom's lessons throughout the years certainly have helped to increase my interest as well. However, I've never really spent time really trying to produce art.
Until now.
Enter French.
I have found myself in need of ways to connect with French people. I also really need to find places where I can get immersed in the French language so that I continue learning and having to speak French.
So, I joined an association in our town where I am taking watercolor classes. I have class every Tuesday morning for 3 hours. It's a FABULOUS way to get immersed in French. And, the people are wonderful! They are so fun!
So, I am going to add some photos here of three paintings I have recently painted -- FOR MY MOM to see!!!! I'm no grand painter here - just learning, actually. But, I think Mom will really enjoy seeing these. (Remember you can click on the photo to make it bigger, if you want, Mom.)
The photo on the left was the model. For some strange reason, the photocopy on the left in each of these photos is darker than it is in real life. Oh well.
We were instructed to try to make a painting exactly like the photocopy. After we finished, he told us to add a yellow wash just above the horizon and then make a reflection in the water. I actually think I liked the painting better without the yellow, but oh well. I definitely messed up the water on the bottom of the painting. I was supposed to do a 'wash', but I didn't. A good way to learn, that's for sure!
Here's my second painting. I took this photo during our first year here in France while I was walking in a garden near my language school. I have always loved this photo, so I decided to try on my own to paint it.
I took this one in and got his feedback. Now as I look at it, I see problems with the perspective on the windows that I messed up, but it's too late to fix that. Oh well.
And, my instructor helped me to make the shadows bolder all over the painting - next to the door, under the stairs, on the sides of the windows and in the greenery. This was a great learning exercise for me.
Then today, I did this painting. I have to confess that when he gave this photocopy to us during our last class and said, "Do this over the Christmas break," I was pretty bummed. I really didn't like the painting. But, I decided to just try.
As the day went on, I just kept coming back to it. I have to admit that it was more fun to paint than I expected it to be.
So, there you go, Mom. You can see the type of things I've been doing. I'll look forward to hearing your feedback!
The second thing I thought I would put in the blog is photos of our most recent outing.
We went to the Deyroll. It's this very interesting place...
...I'm not sure how to describe it...
...it's kinda like this museum of taxidermy...
...or maybe you would say it's a biology teacher's dream because they have lots of bugs collections...
I give up! I'll just show you the photos.
We didn't tell the kids where we were going, we just went in.
They weren't quite sure what to think.
They kept saying, "This is cool...and kinda creepy, too."
A king crab.
I can see where the kids get the idea 'creepy'!!! (This is the skeleton of a snake.)
The butterflies were cool...
...but I'll spare you from having to look at many of the bugs (gross!).
They had several pinned tarantulas. Yuck!
The most interesting this is that most of the things you see in these photos had a price tag on them. Who would want to buy these?!? And, they were not cheap!
But, it was definitely fun to finally see this place. We walk by it every Sunday on the way to our French church, but it's not open on Sundays. We're glad that we finally went on a day it was open - and it was free, too!
Oh...
I cannot sign off without showing you what our neighbors brought by yesterday.
See what's inside?
Oh, yeah! They taste just as good as they look!
We've been taking Christmas cookies to our neighbors for 3 years now. This year, one neighbor decided to give something back! Wow! I'd say we definitely won on this exchange. Yum!
Since it's Christmas, I'll close with a photo of my favorite Christmas decoration.
You see, we thought we lost our box of Christmas decorations when we moved to France. Lo-and-behold, when we went digging in the cave for all of Mark's musical equipment for his guitar concert last May, we found the Christmas box!
It's been an extra special Christmas having all of our favorite things again - the Playmobile nativity set, the felt nativity scene, the advent calendars we used in the USA - and these special little singing ladies my sister made and gave to us for Christmas a number of years ago. They just make me smile to look at them...for several reasons.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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