The Magic of Christmas

Christmas season is here! Angela and Guillaume decided that they would buy their Christmas tree yesterday, and decorate it last night. Guillaume thought that they should eat crepes, and drink champagne. Angela liked that very much. She wanted to listen to Christmas music, too. Guillaume thought that was a little too much, but they listened anyways. Angela sang with the music.

Guillaume wanted to go by himself (since he can drive alone now) to buy the tree. So he put on his hat,

his shoes, and his hands-free earpiece for the mobile phone.



The tree was short enough to fit in the back seat of the car.







But it was a fat tree - it's a fat fatty!


Guillaume also bought a tree stand, and had to put it together.

It didn't take too long...

And look, it works!

The lights were a little tangled up. Angela had to untangle them.

Champagne was a good idea to help with the lights.

After the lights were strung on the tree, Guillaume had the honor of placing the first ornament.

While Angela put more ornaments on the tree, Guillaume was preparing the crepes.

This is the first Christmas season crepe.

And here is the finished stack of crepes.

They enjoyed eating them while watching a movie. They decided that their Christmas tree decorating tradition will always include crepes, champagne, and Evan Almighty (even though it wasn't a great movie).

Helen painted this Christmas scene, and because Angela and Guillaume loved it so much, she gave it to them. They decided to put the Christmas tree in front of it as well.

Angela strung lights along the windows, too.

Et voila! Behold the Magic of Christmas!

Le velo

Guillaume was riding his bike to work yesterday. He was on Charles Street, almost at the end, near Beacon Street.

He thought his brakes were not working well, so he thought he would bounce up and down to test them. He tried it once, and the brakes worked. He tried it again, and the front of the bike turned unexpectedly, and he fell off the bike.

The bike landed on top of him. Everyone on the street stopped to watch. He said, "Oh frick", and made a bad face, and rode off quickly, looking down because he didn't want to see the face of anyone because he was embarrassed.

After Angela knew he was okay, he told the story again, and they laughed until they cried.

Travaille

Toutes les femmes Rousseau sont de retour au travaille.

Felicitations Cyrielle! Hier, nous avon regarde le site pour ton boulot nouvelle! Tres chic!

Maman Rousseau, nous voulons des photos de South Africa!

Angela manque Guillaume-ah...

Cape Cod

Yesterday, Angela and Guillaume went to the Cape, to her Aunt Andrea & Uncle Karl. Aunt Andrea is her dad's sister. They have lived on Cape Cod for many years.

Guillaume drove. His driver's license finally came in the mail yesterday! He feels very legal now that he can buy beer at sporting events, like a hockey game!

Slow down Guillaume!

We made it to Cape Cod without incident.

First, we went to the National Cemetery to visit Angela's dad. This is Angela and her dad at her cousin Pam's wedding in December 2002. He didn't leave the dance floor!

We decided to go to Bone Hill Beach to see what it looks like in the winter. This is the little road on the way to the beach. It is just 2 minutes from Aunt Andrea & Uncle Karl's house.

We drove up over the hill, and saw the beach in front of us.

The camera didn't get blown off the post when we took this picture!

This is the very same spot, in the summer, when we went with Cyrielle.

It looks a lot warmer, doesn't it?


But yesterday, Angela was freezing!

Guillaume was too.

So they quickly got back into the car, and drove 2 minutes to Aunt Andrea & Uncle Karl's house, where they found a hot fireplace waiting for them! (And Uncle Karl's foot...)

They sat around that fireplace for a long, long time to warm up. In this picture is Angela, her Aunt Andrea (her dad's sister), Andrew, and her cousin Pam (from the wedding, picture up above).

Pam's husband, Brian, and their two cute little girls, Jane and Addie, were there, too.

The Rousseau Family met Brian when we were all in the North End, at Mike's Pastry, the night before Guillaume and Angela got married.

Guillaume and Andrew were enjoying the fire, as well. And the food.

The dogs were enjoying the company. This is Sam.

And this is Ginger. Angela thought Ginger was dead, but she wasn't. She usually runs around and makes lots of noise. Aunt Andrea says it's hard to train her because she's smart. Sam (the black dog) is very well trained (we don't tell him he isn't very smart, but he may have overheard them talking).

Angela and Guillaume were talking to the family when Guillaume noticed the pole to his right, and wondered what it was.

It's called a bed warmer. In the "old days", people would put coal inside the bed warmer, and rub it on the sheets before they would get into bed so that the bed would be warm. Pretty interesting!

We ate Pizza by Evan, 4 different kinds, and some salad. Brian had bought a case of Beaujolais Nouveau wine, and we had that too. It was very good. The bottles are very pretty, too, but for some strange reason, there are no pictures!

The fire started to die down, the night was coming to an end, and Angela and Guillaume left shortly after Pam & Brian. Andrew decided to stay for the night because he had a 3 hour drive home to Connecticut!

Guillaume had to ride his bike to work this morning at 10:30. It was very cold. Angela hopes he did not turn into an ice cube.

Angela finished 7+ weeks of radiation last Wednesday, so she is going back to work on Monday. She is very excited, but is wondering when she will see Guillaume again.

A+ (Angela just learned that.)

The First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is Angela's favorite holiday. She looks forward to it all year: the family, dinner, desserts, wine, all without the pressure of Christmas presents!

Unfortunately, Guillaume had to work on his First Thanksgiving as a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States.

Angela made coffee and a toasted corn muffin for Guillaume, for his breakfast.

They watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv while drinking their coffee. The Macy's parade actually comes from European tradition! In the 1920's, many of Macy's Department Store employees were 1st generation immigrants. They wanted to celebrate this American holiday with the type of festival they loved in Europe. They marched from 145th St. to 34th St. dressed in costumes, with floats, and animals from a zoo! The parade stopped during WWII, but started again in 1945, and was televised in New York.

When Angela and Andrew were little, their parents took them to New York to visit their Uncle Michael. They saw the Parade, and they also saw the Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall, with the Rockettes!

Angela drove Guillaume to work today. After giving him a kiss goodbye with a tear in her eye, he ran into the front door of work, and Angela drove off to spend the holiday at Aunt Vas & Uncle Sal's house.

There was a lot of commotion in the kitchen preparing all the food! Vas and Sal barely slept the night before. (Angela thinks they were thinking about the turkey!) Andrew brought a Greek dish, spanakopita (delicious!), made with layers of buttered phyllo dough, spinach, onions, feta cheese, and more layers of buttered phyllo dough! Helen brough a sweet potato dish, and lots of pies!

The turkey was cooked to perfection, golden brown and juicy!

Angela made the mashed potatoes, creamy and buttery! (Angela likes butter.)

The table was set perfectly, with fall decorations, candles, and beautiful dishes.

Even though Guillaume wasn't there, he was in their hearts, and on their table!

This is Angela's plate full of turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and spanakopita. She tried not to over-eat like she usually does on Thanksgiving. She didn't really succeed.

And she gave a "thumbs up" to the meal!

She didn't leave anything on her plate, either. Isn't it a pretty dish?

After dinner and a little rest, they had some dessert wine that Andrew brought back from California. It was very good!

There were a lot of desserts to choose from. Helen made TWO different kinds of apple pies, and she also brought a custard pie. Vas made some Greek cookies that are so buttery (maybe Angela likes these cookies) that they melt in your mouth, and some oatmeal raisin cookies (because Uncle Sal likes them!).

This is Angela's dessert plate. She only had ONE cookie. (But she brought a lot of cookies home.)

Guillaume got home at 11:45 p.m. to find Angela waiting up for him so that they could have their Thanksgiving dinner together. He opened a nice bottle of wine from work, and Angela prepared the dishes.

He really enjoyed his Thanksgiving dinner! (And Angela enjoyed her 2nd Thanksgiving dinner!)

Even though they were sad to have been apart, they were very happy to be together at the end of the day.

Happy Thanksgiving!