adventures of an american housewife in the south of france

Holidays in Montpellier, Part 3: Ramona’s First Christmas

Hmm, January 6th today.  Am I still allowed to write about Christmas?  I hope so because it was a special one - Ramona's first!  Last year we spent Christmas Eve driving home from our Italian Road Trip and didn't give a whole lot of thought to presents, stockings, or a tree.  But we wanted to do things differently this year, because even if Ramona won't remember her first Christmas, we will! We started off...

Holidays in Montpellier, Part 2: The Return of Grandma (and Grandpa!)

In mid December, Grandma came back to Montpellier.  And this time she brought Grandpa with her! I was really excited for Ramona to finally meet her fourth Grandparent.  She immediately greeted him with a big smile.  She always seems to be smiling with she's around her two Grandpas!  She's a charmer already. We had a really nice week with my parents.  My Mom was so amazed with all the ways Ramona had...

Ciao & Auguri!

And we're back!  I hope you all had a lovely holiday with friends and family.  Michael's office is closed this week, so we've been taking it easy, relaxing and recovering after our 8-day, nearly 2,000 km road trip through Italy.  We traveled along the Cote d'Azur to Riomaggiore, up to Firenze, back down to Siena, and then up to Torino, before heading back to Montpellier on Christmas Eve.  I can't wait to tell...

Marché de Noël: Christmas in France

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here! I'm really enjoying how festive the town has become.  We've been going on a tour of the Marché de Noël, or Christmas markets.  About a week and a half ago, we visited the small, beautiful town of Annecy on the border of France and Switzerland and had a lovely time at their Marché de Noël. This past weekend, we visited...

Hump Day: Vin Chaud

About two months ago I started getting really annoyed that there was no apple cider here.  Not hot, not cold, not anything.  I whined about it a lot (just ask Michael).  I finally bit the bullet and just made my own hot apple cider on the stove whenever the craving hit, and I managed to get through the fall without too many tears. And now it's December and Vin Chaud entered my life, and I could give a flying...

Weekend In a Nutshell: Packers Win

What a lovely weekend of doing not a whole lot!  The Hub and I celebrated Christmas Part II on Friday night by opening up all the gifts from my family that arrived earlier in the week and drinking a lovely Italian red that I'll be telling you about on Wednesday.  It was nice to extend the Holiday celebrations by an extra week, which also kept me from feeling guilty about the fact that our tree was still...

Baby’s First Christmas

Living on the West Coast and having our families in two different states in the Midwest, it can be difficult to decide where to spend the holidays.  The Hub and I are so lucky that we both come from amazing families that we actually want to spend time with, so we have to plan our holidays diplomatically.  However, this year the decision was simple.  You see, this year, we had a new person in the picture:  our...

The Year of the Beard

Last year was the first Christmas that The Hub and I celebrated together as a married couple.  We decided to spend the holiday in San Francisco and start our own traditions.  We bought a tree, had our parents send us some of our favorite childhood Christmas ornaments (Barbie for me, Star Wars for The Hub) and spent a quiet, cozy holiday with our little family of us and Figaro. Because we like to make a big deal...

Snow Beard and Bed Beard: Double Christmas Edition

Fig joined us on our long flight back to Wisconsin, and he was a true champ! He stayed calm and quiet in his bag, even during our unexpected 4 hour layover in Chicago. Fig's been having a great time back in Wisconsin.  He's wearing his sweaters to stay warm and he loves playing in the snow.  My sister-in-law snapped a cute picture of Fig outside and had the great idea of posting it as his "Snow Beard." ...

Snickerdoodle Heaven

A few weeks ago I had a Snickerdoodle at a friend's holiday party and since then, I just haven't been able to get them off of my mind!  I've never been a Snickerdoodle kind of girl, but the buttery, cinnamon-sugar aftertaste haunted my brain until I broke down and made a batch of my own yesterday while I watched Sex and the City 2 (don't judge) waited for The Hub to return from Europe. I'd never made...

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