Christmas inside and outside

 

We have not brought home a tree yet, but it is beginning to look like Christmas around here.  Have you ever grown an amaryllis? 

If you never did

You should.

These things are fun.

and Fun is good.

--Dr. Seuss

They are very hearty plants and can grow up to a couple of inches a day.  When I was teaching I would often grow one because you could actually see the plant grow each day.  This one didn't start growing until Pierre knocked it off the table.  Maybe I had packed the soil to tightly, or maybe it was just his magic touch.

 Madame Alba, our gardienne and sometimes babysitter, put a tree in the lobby.  We have new hats and this bunny and owl thought this would be a good spot to pose.

 So far, I have not seen much of the religious side of Christmas in Paris.  I will go looking. 

Paris knows how to shop.  This is the Christmas village at Trocadero.  There are many Christmas villages around the city.  Temporary cottages go up and all sorts of food and crafts are sold.  There are many ice skating rinks around the city and Trocadero's must be opening soon because Lillian's class is slated to skate there this week.

 This weekend I had to run errands with my bunny and owl in tow.  I decided we would look for cool Christmas displays and take some photos.  We got Lil's glasses tightened, bought some fancy purple parsienne boots for Sylv, and went grocery shopping.  Here are a few of the things we saw on our way.

 Shops take their window displays very seriously all year round.  Of course, at Christmas the ante is upped.  If the windows are not quite finished, there will be a sign in the window saying, "Vitrine en cours,"  in case you were to think that such a half-finished display represented the store.  Horrors!

 Here are some penguins posing in front of two of my holiday looks. 

Last week we had our first snow.