Update continued

Christmas time was magical. Without a doubt, I missed sharing it with the family back home and it was hard when everyone was together and we were here, so far away. But at the same time, it was restful and joyous and excitement filled the air. Robert and Andrew wrote a "letter" to Santa every night in the month of December. The real purpose of this was for Andrew to practise writing his letters...they would decide on a toy, Robert would write the word and draw a picture of it, and then Andrew would write the word underneath. Andrew embraced this to no end as he did everything Christmas-related! Of course by the end of the month, there was a very long list of toys on his wish list, but Andrew was quite happy with the load he received from Santa this year. His first comment on Christmas morning was, "WOW, I was a REALLY good boy this year"!!!!!! We had several Christmas parties to attend, one for his tennis club, one for the daycare at my gym, one at his school, one at a baby group, and two at Robert's work. Each time, Santa's attire seemed to be increasingly pathetic, the Santa costumes are just lousy here! There was a free photo with Santa for the month of December outside of my grocery store this year and the Santa there cracked me up to no end...he was about 18 years old, had dark brown hair and eyebrows, the costume did nothing to disguise this, and yet, there were never any questions on Andrew's behalf and he very willingly sat on all of the Santa's knees and happily proclaimed his wish list! We visited a couple of the villages again this year, one in Nice and the other in Antibes, and I must say, they do a good job of decorating and providing entertainment (mostly free, rides, etc.) for the kids. Aside from the heart of the villages however, the south of France does NOT begin to look a lot like Christmas! Hardly anyone displays lights or other decorations outside of their homes and in my opinion, it feels more Christmassy in South Florida then here! Despite this, Andrew went wild each and every time we drove past a house or apartment that did have Christmas lights displayed. I cannot wait for him to see North America at Christmas time, so I hope we get to spend a Christmas there again sometime soon. Ryan took it all in stride. Of course at this age, he was still pretty into the paper and boxes, etc. but was quite content with his new toys, particularly the Fisher Price Little People race track that I got at a flea market-type sale for 5 euros! He is also quite in love with a toy hamster that I actually bought for Andrew since it says Ages 4+ on the box, but Andrew has no interest in it and Ryan seems to get endless enjoyment from it! It is definitely true at this age that the amount of money spent on a toy has ZERO correlation to how much the toy will be enjoyed. Some of Andrew's most prized possessions this year were items I picked up at the dollar store in Canada or here, such as the "flute" (recorder), and the fishing pole set. Other faves were the Sydney Crosby miniature hockey player (aka "hockey man") sent from Aunty Susie, the Leap Pad tag reader from Aunty Lo, the personalized Spiderman book from Grandma and the voice-recorded night-time book from Abuela. But among them all, by far, the favourite gift of the year was one that I (Santa) splurged on this year. His most expensive gift to date, costing a whopping 35 euros!, and one that he has played with each and every day since Christmas, is the Playmobil castle set. In my opinion, Playmobil are THE best toys out there. I was reluctant to actually buy Playmobil toys, as we have free access to the Playmobil room at Petite Ferme and I did not want that to lose its appeal, as my friend had advised had happened with her son when she bought him some. But he absolutely loves playing with these little knights and horses within their castle, and arming them with various weapons and uses his imagination to devise little stories and scenarios for up to hours at a time! I will definitely continue to expand on this gift in the years to come, with more castles, dragons, pirates, or whatever he is fostering an interest in, and although they are not cheap toys (relatively, that is, some sets go for well over 100 euros), they are durable, unbreakable really, and last the test of time. I've heard that some children have very little interest in Playmobil, but I'm quite glad that Andrew is not one of those! My only problem at the moment with these toys is that there are a LOT of pieces...and when Ryan gets his hands into the stuff, they can be all over the apartment in a matter of seconds. So, as a result, I usually save this particular toy to be pulled out during Ryan's nap, or after he has gone to bed.

Ryan is now awake, time to get the boys fed, and then we're off for a family day at the beach. I will continue on later, and post some pics soon.