Cirque du Soleil

A big, big thanks to the kids for the Cirque du Soleil show last week. I heartily encourage my friends in Barcelona, Belgium, and the Netherlands to try to go. There's a story, a Comedy del Arte. The acrobatics are impeccable. Seeing the show live is nothing like seeing Cirque du Soleil on a screen. 

And Paul and I went to the special exhibit at the Louvre on antique Macedonia, Alexander the Great.  The exhibit finishes today, the 16th, and I hope they maintain the site a bit longer so you can see the pictures of some of the most fantastic pieces. The gold, oak leaf crown is truly extrordinary. Many pieces (in fact, I think, the most remarkable ones) are from Alexander I and Philip II periods. They were Alexander the Great's grandfather and father. 

Otherwise, I'm still working on my painting. And planning my vegetable garden. I'm going to try the square foot gardening method this year. The French books on the subject, however, recommend 40 cm. squares rather than 30. Of course, 30 cm. is a foot. I'm making 3 frames. If I go with the 40 cm.² parcels, I'll have 9 per frame, 27 in all. If I choose 30 cm.², then I'll have 16 per frame or 48 total. I think I'll have enough work with 27! Not only do you have to plan what to plant, how much to plant, but also what plants will go together in a frame and what plants do you plant before or after.... Lots of planning. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 BONNE ANNEE

New Year's Greetings 2012

The Lebelles had a good year! If you click on the link to 2011, March, you'll find our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam and in April, our family birthday celeb­ration at Disneyland Paris. Back to March -- we linked two group trips to Cambodia and Vietnam in order to spend a full month traveling. It was a great, although we agree that we appreciated Cambodia more than Vietnam, probably due to the nature of the group tours more than the countries. We returned in April to celebrate a lot of birth­days together. Well, we all have a birthday every year, but for some of us, it was one of those spe­cial years: 10, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 75! We had a very warm and sunny spring, followed by a chilly summer and then a warm fall. Ellen got to babysit Aurelia in February when she had the chickenpox. We both visited in June and again in August for THE MOVE. The Hu­saunndees have moved to a big house just around the corner from where they lived before! Ellen re­turned in November for a short visit and we spent Christmas with them with Anne, in the new house. Emma, Louis and Gwen also visited in December. In November, Ellen also ventured up to Man­chester to catch high school friend, Beth Levin, in concert! What a treat! We also had nice visits here from the Pickars, Sleeths, Schallers, and Chaussemys. And now it's time to start a new year. We wish you the very best for 2012! _______________________________________________________________________ Les Lebelle ont eu une bonne année. Si vous cliquez sur le lien 2011, March, vous trouverez notre voyage au Cambodge et le Vietnam et, en April, notre fête d'anniversaire familiale à Disneyland Paris. Pour notre voyage en "Indochine", nous avons lié deux voyages en groupe. Magnifique. Nous avons mieux apprécié le Cambodge, mais c'est peut-être du à la nature des visites. Retour en Avril pour fêter beaucoup d'anniver­saires. Oui, nous fêtons tous chaque année une anniversaire, mais 2011 était spécial : 10, 30, 40, 50, 60, et 75 ans ! Nous avons eu un printemps chaud et ensoleillé, suivi d'un été frisqué, puis un automne doux. Ellen a pu garder Aurélia en février quand elle a eu la varicelle. Nous avons tous deux rendu visite en juin et encore en août pour le grand démé­nagement. Les Husaunndee se sont installés dans une grande maison tout près de l'ancienne. Ellen est allée encore en novembre et nous sommes re­tournés avec Anne pour fêter Noël dans la nou­velle maison. Emma, Louis et Gwen sont allés aussi en décembre. En novembre, Ellen est monté jusqu'à Manches­ter pour voir une copine de lycée, Beth Levin, en concert. Géniale ! Nous avons aussi reçu des visites des Pickar, Sleeth, Schaller, et Chaussemy. Et maintenant, une nouvelle année s'annonce. Nous vous souhaitons une très bonne année 2012 ! -------------- PS: Some of you may receive a hard copy of this in the next few days. Certains parmi vous vont recevoir une copie papier de ceci dans les jours qui viennent.

40

Today is our wedding anniversary. 40 years! Wow. This is much more impressive to me than a big birthday. Turning 40, 50, or 60 didn't seem to hit me as much. We have absolutely nothing special planned for today. 

Most of the Christmas/Hanuka shopping is done and wrapped. I've got to get some to the post office today. I'm still struggling with making some Barbie dresses (a special gift!), so I think today will be spent sewing. I've finished with my knitting for a while. I got several big items done for gifts, and some smaller ones, as well. Can't very well talk about them now because of my readership, but I'll try to get pictures of them for the next post.

There's an exhibit of local artists at the Maison du Citoyen in Fontenay sous Bois and our group from Francine's is there, including me. I'm really sorry I couldn't get good shots of Jean's pencil drawings. They are beautiful, but the light was reflecting off the glass and you can't see them.

My paintings

Anne-Marie's paintings and one of Rita's

2 of Renée's and one of Francine's

Francine, Mathilde, Isabelle (2 in center),
and Valérie (2 on right)

Valérie, Fanny, Renée (abstract on top),
Isabelle, Francine and Renée again

Matilde (flowers), Francine,
and Rita (2 blue and the flag)

Family Ties, or not?

I got to talking to one of the patrons of the library the other day. I forget exactly how we got on the topic, but he said his family had emigrated from Germany in the 1840s and I countered with "same here" and we got to talking. Guess what? His name is Glaser. Pronounced with a long "ay", as in German. And he had an uncle Louis! And he served in Korea, but I don't know if he was a marine. And he's 82, or 83; I forget what he said.
Well, I don't really think we're related, but this is fun. His Glaser family was Christian, but his mother's family was Jewish. The lived in Missouri, I think he said. I'm sure he said his Glaser family had settled in the mid-west upon arrival in the US. He's been living in France for quite some time. His first name is Robert. He doesn't have an email address, but I did ask for and got permission to copy his home address and phone number from the library members' file in case one of you wants to contact him. Or, you could send your questions to me and I'll ask. He is a very, very chatty person.