Hey guys,

Together, Mum, Dad and I went in a trip to Dunkerque. The goal was to meet everybody in my mum’s family after almost two years of US residence and non presence in Dunkerque.

We all prepared ourselves in order to be able to gulp down all different food we could be presented to.

It was fun to meet everybody, I meet my great grand mother

My aunty Lucie and, who knows, soon to be uncle Pieter from Netherland.

One of the first big dinner was for December 24^th  on my grand mother side, we shared the table with the under 30. The above 30 were on the other side, so mum and dad had to be split and I ended up switching to both of them but this was fun. I was allowed on both tables, being the youngest one…..

I played a game with my grand aunty and the goal was to guess where the cap was under one of the three plates.

I was not very good at first but I soon demonstrate I wasn’t far of guessing right after a while.

The big thing of the night was the right I got to stay awake…great until almost 11h30 pm and a little bit before going into bed I discovered what I learned to be something big during this period of Christmas…I learned the word gift, learned it so well I even could use it all along the day when I meet new faces.

It was fun to open those boxes and guess what was in there. Was fun to play with the toys…

For those who are very into learning French and catching the wording, I also learned another word during those Christmas vacations. In French, Gift is “Cadeau” and cookies is “Gateau”. So why bother making the difference when in one shot you could express both need like “a dt eau” and get it all….

The next day , on the 25^th, we stayed on the other side of the family and it was also a big party, big gifts and a lot to eat and some kids to play with…

They even teach me how to play mini-soccerpool….

We left the northern country a little bit after Christmas and we gave all my gifts to the grand parents for later to bring it back home as it couldn’t fit in the suitcase.

We enjoyed it completely, it was so good, I even took a little bit of insurance by doing what I wanted and screaming to what I wanted, (staying with grand parents who didn’t see you often help a lot) . Being back in Dolomieu, I ended up staying one week with my dad at home and he pretty much put me back on the right tracks…

Coming right from US, we celebrated Thanksgiving at home with some of our friends. I think mum and dad want me to make sure my blood understands where I was born. Being trained by Vince and Liz during their stay in New Jersey, they were correctly set to show what a real thanksgiving really is to those Frenchmen.

First thing was to find a turkey. You would tell me it is really easy and we find them frozen in every shopping center, big one. No need to stress, but this was without counting we were in France . During this period in France, turkeys are still being fed in order to be ready for Christmas.

So dad called a butchershop and asked if it was possible to get one…. The answer at first was rough to hear “oh my little monsieur this is not the period, we won’t find any”. Dad did ask if she could find out but no hope to have.

We said to ourselves, no big deal let’s have if they can get a big capon. So we asked again and the answer was rough “oh my little monsieur this is not the period, we won’t find any”…..

And do you have some little chicken? “Oh YES”

Certainly because she found my dad was desperate to not have any, she called all the suppliers she knew and on the Wednesday right before thanksgiving, right during one of my dad’s meeting, she said “Oh Mr. Nagel, I found your poultry”.

And here it is well cooked at the French way, with the head…..

We enjoyed our meal Zoe and I and guess what Vince, like a real one

We had , mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing imported from Shoprite Caldwell’s, Cranberries sauce, sweet potatoes and corn.

Our friends were still not here so we enjoyed the big table just for us, one on each side.

Then came Florian and he got the same meal.

Then Lucas, but he got some trouble finding the mouth with his fork so his mum helped him very efficiently to finish his plate.

We played together and our parents got it in big.

I even find the way back on mummy’s lap in order to help her finish the corn….I liked it.

As you can imagine, everybody was full and some of them (Kalou) got some fuzzy dream on the couch when some decided to take fresh air and get some exercise visiting the neighbor.

We finished the day by giving each other some gifts and it was over. Gift rule was to purchase a gift with a value of 9.58 euros and my mum and dad didn’t play it fair. They pretty much buy more than one to make the sum and it was wrong. Kalou was the worse; he cheated by modifying very badly the bill….BOOOOOOH

(I know we normally don’t give gifts for thanksgiving, but we had to adapt to the local customs.)

After my parents came back to me, we enjoyed this surprising mild month of November. They say it was never seen for the past 100 years.

For me, I could be out without too much clothing protection and this was much better like that.

November 6^th, two things to remember:

1)      I meet THE other big fan from the Colts, Phil, and together we played ball and ball, telling each other story of what this will do to the other this year. Even the Giants or the Jets (Sorry Vince) won’t be able to do anything with the Colts so good……

2)      We explained to Phil the rule for Rugby as we had a big game against the New Zealand All blacks. We got one of the best defeats ever…NO Comments, Sxxxxx….

It was fun to have you over Phil, came back again and visit us. (Maybe this will bring the other folks to come over if they see you get back home safely)

November 19^th, two things also:

1)      My mummy got a new hair cut and I like it. She got it short with a mix of blond/brown. How do you like it? She’s cute in her typical short French air cut?

2)      I got the visit of Louise and it was a cry and hug party.

She was a guest and she didn’t bring any toy, Normal. So I had to share, but she always wanted the one I wanted and I cracked, I didn’t know it was so hard to lend his own toys

I learned to share a little and I know the adults try to play with toys all day in order for me or Louise not to get the same one, we got into barter.

But at the end of the day, we get along well and we practice kissing as it was fun….we were in Love for the rest of the day

November or the month I am becoming a clown…