Xmas

The center of Grenoble is charming even in the half freezing drizzle that we get this time of year. It has a certain somber beauty to it, which is quickly lost as soon as you move out of the center and into the socialist block house neighborhoods. Yesterday we had xmas lunch with a woman from work and her family in the region between the center and the block houses (in a quiet part of town near the Parc Paul Mistra)l. They have three children who are perfectly bilingual; I was very jealous (of being bilingual, not having three children)






It was a lot of fun, and we ate a bit too much food, as usual. The highlights were oysters and a goose with apple stuffing. I made potatoes in our new saucepan


Several hours later we left, and went to our friends Dave and Sandy's apartment. Sandy gave birth to a son (Dylan) earlier this month, and it was the first time I got to see him, which was a lot of fun. We continued gorging ourselves, but ate a more north american meal than lunch: turkey, more potatoes, broccoli, stuffing and a wonderful 1982 Bordeaux which had been given to us as a wedding present. It was a nice day, and hanging out with two "real" families with actual Xmas trees made us feel a bit less lonely, but we both still missed being with our families!

Snow is coming in at lower elevations today, so I hope to be able to finally snowboard this week. Heres a picture of snow on the Neron (taken from our window)