Galette des Rois - A French Tradition

On the Epiphany day (January 6), it is a custom in France (as well as in other countries) to serve a cake known as "The Kings' cake" (Galette des Rois). There are some variations of it. In Provence, for example, it is made of brioche and in Paris it is made of puff pastry with marzipan or almond cream, which is the case of the one shown in the picture above.

A figurine (la fève) is hidden inside. The cake is then divided into equal pieces and the lucky person who finds the fève becomes "king" for a day and receives a paper crown. 

I wanted to introduce the tradition at home for some time, but I couldn't find a ready made galette. I even looked at some recipes, but since I'm not a great cook, I was fast discouraged. However, this year I found out that the cake is actually sold in many French bakeries here in New York. And, since traditions tend to evolve with time, nowadays, the galette can be found during the whole month of January. So if you like the idea, you still have a whole week to buy yours.  

We bought our first one last weekend. P didn't understand really what was going on and F was absolutely overexcited about the perspective of being king of the house for one day. Unfortunately for him, I was crowned Queen. Which made him extremely frustrated. So the next day, I had two figurines and two happy kings (not very educational, I know, but it is supposed to be fun). 

Another Christmas tradition: Angel Chimes

The other day I saw in A Cup o Jo, another Christmas tradition that we used to have in my house when I was a child and that I had completely forgotten about: Angel Chimes. How could I? It is the cutest thing to see.

The heat from the candles make the little angels turn around and ring the bells. The sound is lovely. The kids were mesmerized. 

This is our newest Christmas tradition.

Advent Calendar 2012

Last year, I got a little bit frustrated about all the great ideas of Advent calendars that I was finding on the web. It's not that we were out of them (we had 4), is just that I wanted something more special and not as commercial as the ones we had.

So, this year, I decided to create my very own Advent calendar. And, I must say, I'm really really proud of myself. For someone, that didn't even know how to switch on a sewing machine last year, I modestly think that I did a good job.

Hope you like it!

Happy Friday - paper garlands

Any plans for the weekend? We have a quite festive one. Birthday party on Saturday and an end-of-year-class-gathering for F on Sunday.

Since we are all still preparing for the Holidays, here's an entertaining and VERY easy activity to do with your children. Paper garlands. We did some today and it was a success. You just need some color paper (actually white paper would do the trick as well), glue or tape and scissors.

Felt garlands for Christmas

From Anna Maria Horner's blog

For those of you who didn't notice, I wasn't feeling very motivated on Friday. It was just one of those days when everything, and I really mean everything, goes wrong. Does it happen to you too? There are some days when it seems we attract (or maybe we just see) bad things around us. Even my husband who usually makes fun of my "bad days" was kind of surprised with my bad luck. Anyway, I survived. And there's nothing better than a good weekend to recharge the batteries.

I was thinking about what I wrote on Friday about my creativity and I actually do have some. I usually need a lot of inspiration and a great deal of models, but at then end I end up doing some nice things. So I wanted to share an idea of a garland made of felt for Christmas. I took the idea from here. I didn't do the garland per se, instead I adapted the idea to make some decorations for P's 1st birthday party. It looked very cute. Once you have the technique, you can actually do whatever you want.

Elephants, ball, and number 1s for my little boy's first birthday

A circus without colors and a clown is not a real circus

My mess

The garlands ready and hanging over the sweets table (one day I'll put some pictures of the birthday's details)

This year, for instance, for F's birthday, the theme was Spiderman. I think it's hard to really personalize a party when you choose such a commercialized character. So I decided to make some Spiderman faces and number 4s out of felt, using the same technique mentioned above, and I hanged them over the sweets table.

Hope you like the result and that they may inspire your creative side. Have a great week!

Inspiration is down - TGIF

Not feeling very inspired today. So here are some other great ideas for Advent Calendar. I'm amazed (and I must confess soooo jealous) on how many creative people exist in this world.

From Martha Stewart

From The Pretty Blog

From Nuvonova

From Land of Nod

From It is what it is

I'll stop here, because I'm getting completely obsessed with Advent Calendars. Besides, instead of bursting my creativity and inspiration all these websites and blogs with their great ideas and so talented authors made me realized how ambitious I was when I decided to start this blog.
(Big, huge, Sigh)

***

Anyway, we are going to the Circus this weekend. I haven't been to a real one since I was a little girl(I don't consider "Cirque du Soleil" or those chinese acrobats as real ones - they are fantastic but not the traditional kind of circus I'm referring to) . That - I think, I hope - will be fun.

Hope you'll all have an inspiring weekend!

Preparing for Christmas - Advent Calendar

All our Advent Calendars (from right to left): 1- Calendar with little books in each window; 2a- Playmobil Calendar; 2b- Playmobil Scene to place each piece found in the windows; 3- Calendar that came in F.'s French magazine Pomme d'Api; 4- Calendar in P.'s French magazine Popi

I don't come from a very traditional family. I was raised as Catholic but now I'm not very religious. Nonetheless, Christmas is still very important to me, because I see it as a family gathering. It's the only time of the year when we all try to be together. And this is not an easy task given that my family is spread over three continents and I lost count on how many different cities. But, this year, for the first time in many many many years, we will ALL be together. My parents, my sister and her family, my brother and almost all the family from my mother's side. There will probably be some stressful situations, some fun ones, some sweet ones, but I'm sure that above all there will be a lot of joy and fond memories being created for ever.

As I was saying, we are not traditional at all. But, there's one thing that has been recurring over the years, since I was a baby. The presence of an Advent Calendar in the house from December 1st till December 24th. This is something I've decided to continue to do with my children. The calendars may change, but the idea and the excitement are still the same.

The Advent Calendars started in Germany, in the 19th Century, but they became popular after World War II. At the beginning, there weren't calendars the way we know them. It seems that people would draw a line with a piece of chalk or they would light a candle each day until Christmas. Nowadays, the most popular ones are made of cardboard and they have 24 "windows" that have to be opened one at a time each day until Christmas Eve. Inside you can find a Christmas related image (the simplest ones) or there may be a chocolate (my favorites when I was a child).

There is a wide variety of Advent Calendars, especially now that they became so popular. We had, for example, one at home (and my mother probably still has it) made of felter with little pockets, where she would put a chocolate or a small present inside. Every day, my sister, my brother and myself would take turns to "open" the windows. And, of course, the big thing was to open the last one. So sometimes we would just open it all together, because we couldn't decide who would be the lucky one. Or we would even try to remember who had opened it the previous year (or taken the object of the last pocket).

Here at home, with P. too young to understand, F. still has the priority. Though I think this might be the last year and we'll see how it will go next year when he'll have to share his calendars. We might actually avoid the fights cause we always end up having more than one calendar (see the picture above). My mother likes to give the children one each year, I like to buy another one and we are subscribed to some French magazines for children (I'll write a post about them) that also come with Advent Calendars in the December issues.

For the past two years, my mother had brought from Switzerland (where my sister lives) the traditional chocolate calendars. But this year she gave us this so cute calendar, where in each window, there is a tiny tiny book that we have to put in our tree. We read the first one this morning while F. was having breakfast. It was such a nice way to start the day. I'm more materialistic and consumer driven so this is the second year that I bought a Playmobil calendar. I know there are more charming ones in the market, but I like Playmobils as toys and the children can keep them to play during the whole year. Last year I bought one with a Medieval theme and this year I bought one with a more Christmas related theme. The nice thing about this calendar, is that each day the kids only receive a little tiny piece of the whole scene (today we got the mailbox).

Here are some other ideas of Advent Calendars that I found interesting:

• This one is similar to the one I had as a child, with little pockets to hide small gifts. I'm very tempted to buy one for the kids.

• The next one is composed of 24 boxes that can be rearrange as pleased:

• I love this idea:

• And this one is my favorite - my project for next year:

There are many more great ideas, but not enough space to put them all here. What is your favorite Advent Calendar?

Books of the week - Christmas collection

Last year I decided to start a collection of books about Christmas for the kids. I wanted to find some classic stories but also some stories that they would remember as grown-ups. There is something magical about Christmas and the Santa Claus fantasy that makes you dream and wishing to be a child again. The good thing about having children is that you're given the opportunity to become one again in certain occasions.

My husband who's much more realistic and down to earth than me, don't like this whole Santa thing. He thinks the kids should know straight forward that Santa doesn't exist and that we are the ones buying all the toys. He blames me of not letting my children grow up (not sure if this accusation if valid when your children are only 4 and 2 year-old...) and being lying to them. But, he also knows that if he doesn't play the game, he would be in big trouble. Here at home, there is really no discussion on the subject. Because there is still a child inside of me longing for Santa to exist. And this is a gift that I'm passing on to my children. The gift of dreaming and hoping that our most cherished fantasies could one day come true.

***

You've probably already heard about this story, but here's a book that will make you and your children dream (if you like the Christmas fantasy of course):

I bought the 25th Anniversary Edition that comes with an audio CD with the story narrated by Liam Neeson. The kids have been loving to have dinner while listening to the story lately.

There are so many Christmas books that sometimes it can be really hard to choose which ones we'd like to buy (I usually have to control myself not to buy all the books I like). I've ordered some new ones, but since I haven't received them yet I can't make any comments on them (I hope they'll ship them soon). In case you are interested and would like some references to start your own Christmas collection, I'm posting the new additions (beside The Polar Express and The Elf on the Shelf: a Christmas Tradition, mentioned in my previous post) to our collection. The list is short, but the idea is to add each year new books to it.

Book recommended by the same friend who recommended "The Polar Express"

Do you know Babar? Oh, this charming elephant. He deserves a post only for him (to come!). I bought the French version because I'm used to read Babar in French, but you can find it in English or many other languages as well.

***

What about you? Do you already have a collection? What other books would you recommend to us?

Let the Christmas season begin!

This year we are starting a little bit earlier than we usually do.
Today, F and I went to buy our Christmas tree. I was planning on going on a cold and snowy day like we did when he was just a baby, all bundled up in his stroller. It wasn't snowing and it wasn't even cold. But F chose a nice tree.

While I was browsing my albums, looking for another picture, I found the one below taken a year ago. The hair is shorter now, but all the rest has grown. The last signs of babyhood that could still be seen in the 3 year-old on the left, have completely vanished in the 4 year-old little boy on the right. The concentration and the excitement are still the same.

F - December 2010

F - Today

If you are planning on buying a real Christmas tree this year (here in New York), here is a link that I found today with lots of tips on where to buy, how to choose it, how to recycle it and so on.

Oh, and look who's visiting us this year:

This is our very own elf. Santa sent it to us so he could watch how we are all behaving (including me). F is completely into it. However, each time I need to remind him to be nice, he goes to the elf and says "sorry" to him, as if that would solve his problem towards Santa. He's also not supposed to touch the elf, otherwise it would lose its "magic" (it comes with a book explaining everything). But since he saw it this morning he's been thinking on how he would climb the bookcase in order to catch it. Not sure this elf thing is going to work here with us...