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It's Christmas time at our house, and SA has enjoyed tasting the frosted fruit ornaments on our tree this year. Luckily we have had only one glass ball ornament broken so far, and fortunately she has not actually ingested any artificial frosted fruit. We have been reading about baby Jesus and how He is the reason we celebrate Christmas. I have pulled out almost all the Christmas books that I used to read to my third graders and she listens intently to them. She really loves that there is "hay", "cows", "sheep", and a "donkey" in all of the stories about the birth of Jesus. And she loves that there is a huge bright star too.

The other day we had her friends over to make sugar cookies. Thanks to Aunt Abby's recipe, we had some lovely icing to decorate with, and I had some sprinkles and red hots from home to use as well. I am still learning what one can and cannot find here for all of our traditional American recipes. Apparently, we decorate cookies in the US more than they do here, but then if we had patisseries in the US like the ones here, I bet no one would decorate cookies there either. I am still on the hunt for food coloring. I need it to make colored icing (next year) and to make red velvet cake for Christmas Eve. We are having our French friends over for an American meal (except the foie gras which they will bring, and the champagne and cheese that we will have with the meal). Joyeux Noel!!!!!!!!!