Gina Girls Visit

 Lucky for us Meagan was going to be coming to the US this year for the holidays. She is usually in SanDiego and Arizona but took the train up to LA for the night of the 30th to spend time with us college girls!

Just like old times with Jenn, Robbin and Meagan. We walked around Carpinteria and the stores and beach. We had margaritas and dinner at Delgados. 

We slept over at the beach condo and chatted until the wee hours. It was just like old times and even though we only get together every few years we pick up with where we left off. 

Christmas Holiday 2023

The holiday season was in full swing by the time we got back from our Thanksgiving trip to Paris and everyone was back in school. We were able to attend Sabina's Winter dance performance which was so beautiful.

Rosie made a come back, we thought she might be reassigned to a family with young children but apparently not. 

Lily was busy studying for final exams in the weeks leading up to Christmas so she missed out on a few traditions. The old get our tree from the Costco parking lot tradition.

Gemma gave up on wrapping cousins presents and Rosie tried to step in but ended up taping herself to the gift instead. 

Lily had her holiday band performance. It was so good. They played a medley of songs from the movie Home Alone which we love. She is in the Honor band this year and they are so good. 

We got together with cousins when Joel and Tony and family were in town for the weekend. We had dinner over at Eric's house and Rach made a plastic wrap gift ball game. The kids had so much fun. Sadly Gemma was home with the flu so she couldn't come. 

Being home sick has it's perks though. You get to sit on the couch by the tree and served fancy hot cocoa. 

She did seem well enough to help finish baking the Christmas cookies. 

Once she was all recovered she was able to sleep over at Liv's and enjoy some holiday traditions like going to see lights. 

Once finals were over and school was out for Winter break we could enjoy more. We made frosted sugar cookies for Santa. 

Gemma is doing confirmation classes this year and she had acolyte duty on Christmas Eve. She did a great job lighting the candles. 

We always have to force a picture with the big Christmas tree at church. 

Then we came home to have Christmas eve supper. Gemma requested tri tip so we made that with some cheesy potatoes and veggies. 

We left out the cookies for Santa and some carrot sticks for the reindeer. 

Not a creature was stirring..not even a mouse...

Lily will not even let Christmas Eve or Day interrupt her much beloved sleep. 

There was a Holiday sleepover and snuggle fest. 

Gemma was up and ready to go on Christmas morning. Lily took some more convincing and cajoling to get up. Once she heard there were Squishmallows under the tree she shot right up. 

Everybody got something they wanted. 

Gemma was thrilled to get a Taylor Swift concert hoodie, along with her shower cap of course. 

 

Museum of Natural History and Catacomb

Our last full day in Paris and we had a Lily chosen item on the agenda. We had to fuel up with one more croissant and pain au chocolat. This time we also had passion fruits from the market to enjoy with yogurt.

On our way to our outing we happened across a local Sunday market. It was amazing! We would love to have this weekly market to do all our shopping. Each stall was a different item. The cheese shop alone was heaven. 

 

It was all centered around a fountain in the 5th arr. 

After drooling in the market we made our way to the Natural History Museum Gallery of Evolution. They have a huge multi-story exhibit of animals. 

Lily loves a Natural History Museum and this is one of the oldest. It was a little hard to enjoy since none of the placards are in English so we couldn't read the descriptions. 

This is definitely what it feels like to have two teens on vacation. 

One of the main things that enticed us to visit was a special exhibit all about feline species. 

The exhibit was really well done and very interesting. We spend a couple hours in the museum in total. 

After so much culture and learning we needed refreshment. We headed to a cafe we had missed a few days ago back in St Germain called Cafe de Flore. We got a cozy little table and enjoyed one last French Bistro lunch followed by a chocolate chaud with chantilly cream of course. 

After our late lunch we split up as Lily wanted to visit the Catacombs and Gemma had NO INTEREST in seeing dead people bones. Gemma and I wandered the neighborhood a bit and popped into some shops that had amazing holiday decor. It was quite busy and full of hustle and bustle. 

The catacombs were very interesting and they learned all the history. 

On the way home Gemma and I caught sight of one more hilarious French classic. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...in a shopping cart. 

We reconvened back at the apartment and did our packing up. Tomorrow was our flight home. 

The airport was a hectic scene with huge queues for immigration and passport. We were caught with overweight luggage and got caught having to check some bags. Luckily the line for traveling with children under 18 was much shorter than the ridiculous long regular line. So we had time to relax and get a pret a mange and coffee at the gate. 

At least we left on a rainy day so we didn't miss much. Au Revoir Paris, until next time. Hopefully it won't be another 17 years until we see you!

Arc de Triomphe

We didn't have much planned for our Saturday. We bought tickets to go up the Arc de Triomphe in the evening for the views of the Eiffel Tower at twinkly time.  We started off just on a walking tour from our apartment to some open air markets. 

The Marche des Enfants Rouge has lovely stalls with everything you need for your weekly shopping. We wished we could have bought everything in sight. 

We then walked all the way down to Il Saint-Louis wandering and popping in shops along the way. We had worked up an appetite walking all that way.

We waited patiently for a table at Le Saint Regis cafe. It was worth the wait for a charcuterie platter, spaghetti bolognese (Gemma) and a croque monsieur. 

After lunch we walked over to Il de la Cite and saw the Notre Dame once more. We thought about going inside St Chapelle but the queue was around the block. Seems everyone who cannot get into Notre Dame due to the restorations has decided to go to St Chapelle. So we skipped that for some Holiday displays at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann. Seems the Holiday Madness shopping had begun and it was INSANE crowded. 

We got out of there quick and went to the Trocadero to see views of the Eiffel Tower from there. It is a great spot but so so very touristy and crowded. 

We managed to snap a few views away from crowds. The kids mostly enjoyed watching the famous cup game scammers that try to trick tourists into playing for money. Which you infamously always lose. Why do people fall for this stuff?

It was a great time of day for photos as it was starting to get darker. 

We had our tickets for the Arc so we headed on the Metro over there. 

Luckily we planned ahead and bought tickets the night before. The line was all the way through the passage tunnel to get to the arc. We waited for our turn and headed inside. 

Surprise surprise you have to climb the 284 steps to the top and we had about 10 minutes until the lights of the Eiffel tower twinkle! It was a race to the top but we all survived. 

The views were worth it and it was a bright clear evening.