Monday, December 27, 2010

Back & Forth - The holidays

It seems like we just arrived in France and we're leaving. Jan. 6 we take off from Marseille and after a short layover in Frankfurt we expect to arrive in Dallas approx. 15 hours later. Our previous trip in Oct.-Nov. was exceptional with Gisele becoming a naturalized US citizen and then Bill driving like a maniac for 1500 miles to arrive at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming before the first snowfall and then being back to Houston in time for the ceremony Nov. 10. The entire trip turned into about 4200 miles over 5 weeks but it was a part of the US neither of us had been to before and well worth the effort.
Our time in France was also well spent with numerous parties, dinners and get togethers with friends and family. Despite unusually cold weather we were able to collect 180 Kilos (about 400 lbs) of olives from our trees which were crushed and strained into 25 Liters (approx. 6.5 gallons) of our own olive oil.
Our olives being crushed at the mill

Fireplace decorated for the holidays

The holidays seemed to arrive from out of nowhere. We managed to put up some decorations and host friends Giselle(G2) and Marco from Calgary, Canada.

 Giselle(G2), Marco, Gisele(G1), Claudette and Betty

Pierre (87 years old), Irene (101), Therese (90)


Gisele's(G1) family arrived a week before the holiday and stayed with us. Our brother-in-law Patrick made a delicious foie gras of which there is never enough and Bill made four fougasse (a regional specialty from his cooking class).