A new year

Santa showed up at swimming class.

The kids going for a donkey ride.

Arianna gets herself trapped in bed.

She is out for the count.

I took the kids to see the movie "Tangled" or "Raiponce" here in France.  They liked it, afterwards I realized that even though it was in French, I didn't have any problems understanding it 100%.  Thursday evening we were invited to eat with our neighbors.  We had a wonderful evening with them.  The kids were well behaved and we enjoyed ourselves.  I hope that we can have further chances to build relationships like this one with our neighbors.  We celebrated the New Year as a family.  We set off seom fireworks and let the kids stay up until 10:30.  Angie and I saw the New Year in together.  Enjoy some more pictures from this month and I hope you are happy and blessed new year.  JASON

Schtroumpf

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent preparing a lesson for the Bible Study and helping Angie keep the house running. The cool weather has ended for a few days. Wednesday, I had another good conversation with Cédric, my language helper, concerning his beliefs. Thursday Caleb and I went an visited a couple who are members of the church in Carcassonne, they live about an hour south of us. It was a nice drive and we had a really good visit. They have a pull out bed that they are going to pass on to us. They loaded us up with all kinds of good stuff; cakes, cookies, jelly, honey, fresh eggs. . . Nobody came to the bible study last night. Vacations, working late, and visitors kept everyone occupied. Friday evening we watched Toy Story 3 with our kids and some friends. It was great, even better in French. Before the movie started I saw a preview for a movie called the "schtroumpf", it ended up being the smurfs. I can't believe they are making a movie based on this old Saturday morning cartoon. Today we have some friends arriving. They were language school classmates of ours that we haven't seen in two years. We are looking forward to having a good weekend with them. They plan on leaving Tuesday. I went shopping this morning, finished my monthly report (just waiting on the proofreading), and cleaned around the house some. I'd better get the guest room ready. Attached pictures are Lilia and Caleb playing DS and Andrew and Micah playing with some toys that arrived in a package from their grand-parents. Thanks for reading and God bless, JASON

Running an errand.

I ran several errands. First thing this morning I faxed some paperwork for our storage building in the south. I had some interesting conversations with the owner, because I did not know the French term for a storage building (box de location - if your curious). But I got all the paperwork finished and faxed. Then Lilia and I went at 9:30 to pick up the rental car that will get us by until our car arrives. We got back at the house at 11:00, we literally had to park a half mile from the house. As soon as I got home I went headed out to go to the dealership in Versaille to see about a loan. I left and found out the next bus to the train station didn't run for 20 minutes and so it would faster to walk. I walked the mile down there and just missed the train, so I had to wait 30 minutes to the next. By the time I arrived at the dealership I had missed the finance guy and had to wait 30 minutes for him to get back from lunch. Got home at 2:00 and helped Angie pack a little. We took the kids to see l'age de glace 3 (Ice Age 3) at 4:00. We made it in about 8 people before the cut off. It was packed but the kids seem to enjoy. It was interesting watching it in French. But some things were actually funnier. In the movie the dialogue goes, "Qu'est-ce que c'est (what was that)?", "C'est le vent qui parle(is the wind talking)", "Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit(what did he say)?", "Je ne sais pas, je ne parle pas le vent.(I don't know I don't speak wind)" Lilia laughed out loud for that. Tomorrow will be spent packing. We are getting close to being almost nearly starting to be finished. God bless, JASON

Movie Night

Just a quick note of interest, we purchased a movie here and watched it last night. It had 21 languages on subtitles, including Hebrew, Japonese, Aramaic. I thought that was interesting along with the following that all parenst will enjoy. JASON

Toddlers' Property Laws
1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like mine, it is mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10 If it's broken, it's yours.