Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve here, and the kidlets are all a tad excited.

I hope your preparations for tomorrow's festivities are winding up so that you can sit and enjoy your surrounds for a while.

Ready for decorations

For the first time in a few years I've managed to get all the wrapping done beforehand so I can enjoy a nice mango daiquiri in front of the carols.

Mango daiquiris - one good reason for Christmas in summertime. 

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to waking up at 5am tomorrow (can't imagine the 4 yr old lasting much longer).

He ain't pretty, but I love him. 

I wish you all a safe and merry Christmas surrounded by the ones you love. And may your children all sleep in.

Love and best wishes,
K x

It's bloody cold here

After several weeks of balmy high teens temperatures (say 60-65˚F), winter has finally caught up with Provence.

We had snow today!

Of course we have our fingers crossed for a White Christmas.

The Aix-en-Provence Christmas Markets have been open for a few weeks now.

This is our fourth Christmas here and I still can't get enough of this tradition.

But before we toured the markets we attended a Christmas Carols concert (in English) at the St Sauveur Cathedral. There were adult and children's choirs complete with ringing bells and candles for the audience.

The highlights for me were singing The Twelve Days of Christmas (everyone really gets into that one) and the 3 year old asking his father when we would be singing Gangnam Style. Hmm.

After the carols we enjoyed the magic of the markets.

The lights:

The stalls:

This stall smells divine - ribbon-woven lavender

The book markets happened to be on at the same time (in the Hôtel de Ville square)

The Santon display:

(And buying a few more to round out my own collection)

The kiddie rides:

And of course the mulled wine and roasted chestnuts.

The Rotonde Fountain at one end of the Cours Mirabeau looks stunning in lights:

The shopping strip doesn't look too shabby either:

Speaking of shopping, how's yours going?

I need to get into gear. I've sent the Christmas cards and my handmade gifts are coming along well, but the shopping...not so much. There's still plenty of time, right?

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend (perhaps with some Christmas shopping)!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

As two very excited little people told us this morning, Christmas is nearly here!

I'm just popping in here to send you my best for the season and to show you the (very) few handmade gifts I managed to rustle up this year. 

The first is a summer handbag for a friend from noodlehead's awesome 241 tote pattern. I sat my friend in front of my stash and she chose the Laura Gunn fabrics and linen herself, so I know she'll like it.

My next gift, for a dear 10 year old girl, came from this book. 

I made the pencil roll.

Except mine is filled with marker pens, her drawing implement of choice. 

Because the markers are fatter than pencils they put a little wave in the roll, a fact I didn't realise until after I'd made it.  Were I super dedicated I'd make another and increase the pocket size but I'm low on time and linen. I think I'll get away with it.   

I found this super cute doodling book online to go with it. Have you seen this, it's so cool?

Plenty of inspiration to keep kids occupied for hours:

I hope Pere Noël will bring me one too. 

I also hope all your Christmas preparations are finished and you have nothing to do but sit back with a refreshing beverage and relax. 

It's been a busy year but a wonderful year. Blogging has again been a joy, especially all the virtual friendships I've made (not to mention those of you I've had the pleasure of meeting in real life). 

Thank you so much for all your comments and encouragement to keep recording our adventures in France. I wish you and your families all the best for Christmas and the festive season!

Gros bisous,

Kirsty x x  

Aix-en-Provence Christmas Markets

Only one week 'til Christmas! Less if you're in Australia as it's already tomorrow there.

We ventured out last weekend to the Christmas markets in Aix-en-Provence.

As always, the lights are just magical.

The kids also got to enjoy a carnival ride or two.

Not to mention the man with some apparatus to make giant bubbles.

Very pretty.

I enjoyed the spiced wine and these lovely light garlands for sale in one of the market stalls.

The santon display was enchanting - it's a big Provençal Christmas tradition to create a little crèche/nativity scene in your home with these guys. They sell the individual mangers, figures and every kind of animal you can think of. Not to mention bridges, water wheels, little ladies selling calissons, even rows of lavender with harvesting workers (not sure how many of those were around when Jesus was born).

The santon scene on the Cours Mirabeau is quite large and enclosed behind perspex (there would be thousands of euros worth of santons in there). I wish I could've shown you a picture of the whole thing, but there were people standing three deep in front of it, so a bit difficult to photograph (there were also a lot of little nose prints on the perspex by this stage).

Turning water wheel complete with real water.

Finding little baby Jesus was a bit like Where's Wally, but I finally located the Holy Family.

Pay no attention to the Lord Jesus being welcomed by folks in 18th century dress.

Once we'd had our fill of gingerbread and pretzels it was time to head home, pausing to check out the nearly full moon.

And marvel at the disco ball. I love disco balls.

What else has been going on this week? The kids have finished school for the calendar year.

I made some progress on Christmas gifts, finishing this covered journal for our lovely babysitter (using Ros from Bloom's great tutorial again).

Then I had to make a matching drawstring bag because Eva's were just so cute.

Drawstring bag pattern can be found here at Jeni's blog In Color Order

The lovely Susan, who blogs at PatchworkNplay sent me some gorgeous Christmas decorations:

They look very French, non? Thank you so much Susan.

I also went out to dinner one night with some girlfriends and ate these awesome profiteroles for dessert. I thought I should tell you.

Today we went to the annual Truffle Festival at Rognes. There were heaps of people, it was cold, I ate lots and that's all.

Just kidding, those pictures will be up next. Hope your last week isn't too hectic!