Forty at the Frontenac

Austin and the kids surprised me with a trip to Quebec City for my fortieth birthday, complete with a stay at the Chateau de Frontenac! The Frontenac is not only the city's nicest hotel, it is an architectural landmark and, if you read Percy Jackson, the home of the North Wind. Brrr! Quebec is a magical city in every season and I could not have had a more perfect birthday.

The Chateau de Frontenac

Quebec City is even prettier in the winter.

Canada has the best candy stores.
Lucy would know.

 

City lights.

Light projections on a church facade.

Cool light installations, with Cirque du Soleil-esque music.

I love this man.

Frontenac at night.

Cones full of maple syrup. Only in Quebec!

Riding the toboggan luge on the Terasse Dufferin.

Birthday cake(s) from the Christmas market.

Turning forty in a foreign country gives me a certain amount of plausible deniability (what happens in Canada, stays in Canada, right?) On the other hand, I couldn't have scripted a better life for myself on the cusp of middle age. I have a great little family, lots of projects to keep me busy and fulfilled, and a tenured professorship at a nice university -- plenty to show for forty years of living! 

Christmas 2013

Gavin made our Christmas wreath.

Bethlehem Dinner

Christmas Jammies.

Best way to spend Christmas day.

Me too.

Lucy and her new Kindle.

She didn't play on the Kindle all day,
she also made this beautiful scarf!

 

Gavin Kindled and Legoed the day away.
Somehow I missed the action shots.

Merry Christmas!

Santa Lucia Day

I feared that this year Lucy might declare herself too old to play Lucia on December 13th, and my favorite of our little family traditions might disappear. Luckily, a fun new family has moved in to our area. They have Swedish heritage, a Dad that speaks Swedish, and a houseful of really great kids that were very excited about adopting our family Lucia tradition as their own. We got together at their house on Saturday afternoon to make a Swedish dinner and the traditional Lucia celebration treats: pepparkakor (ginger cookies) and Lussekater (saffron buns). We even learned and sang the song in Swedish. Best Lucia Day ever. And even better: Lucy is excited to do it again next year.

 

Reading a story about Lucia Day in Sweden.

Perfect pepparkakor and luscious Lussekater

Santa Lucia

Silly Starboys

The Lucia procession, with real candles on Lucia junior.

 



Traditions

Every Thanksgiving, Austin participates in a pickup Turkey Bowl football game on the Norwich rugby field with young men from our church and various folks from the community. We woke up this morning to four inches of fresh snow and freezing wind. But traditions must go on! Here's my crazy husband wearing cross country ski boots and gaiters, several layers of shirts and pants, and a warm hat. He grabbed his scuba gloves from the barn and headed out to play. He came back happy two hours later, full of stories about how he schooled the youngsters again.

 

 

I stayed home and built up the fire. Some friends had invited us to dinner so I didn't have much cooking to do. But I did get out the traditional Charlie Brown Thanksgiving feast for the kids: jelly beans, pretzels, popcorn, and toast. My kids won't eat turkey, or stuffing, or even mashed potatoes, and rather than being frustrated by this I've decided to just embrace new food traditions.

 

 

So the kids were happy with their junk food Thanksgiving, and Austin was happy about getting tackled over and over into the snow. As for me, I was pretty happy today too. I came downstairs to find this note on the silverware rack of the dishwasher, which had been mysteriously emptied without my asking:

 

Now THAT'S a tradition I can really get behind!

Swim Meet

 

Saturday the kids participated in their first-ever real swim meet at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center in White River, about 45 minutes away. The meet drew junior swimmers from all across Vermont, New Hampshire, and coastal Maine. We made a few swim-meet-rookie mistakes, such as putting Gavin in regular swim trunks, which he tearfully declared would surely fall off as soon as he dove into the water and then what would he do. Luckily, a vendor was set up and we were able to get some racing trunks just in time for warm-ups. I am pleased to report that not only did his new trunks NOT fall off, they helped Gavin swim the 50 breast and 25 free in true swimmer style.

 

Practice dive off the blocks.

A slightly slow start on the 50 free.
But she sure looked great.

 Lucy got a new suit out of it too, once we realized that she had brought her favorite off-shoulder fashion swimsuit that looked more appropriate for a day at the beach than a competition swim. True to form, she adamantly refused to get a racing suit in the darker navy or black colors most other swimmers wore, opting instead for the brightest one she could find. Then she paired it with Gavin's orange monster swim cap instead of the official team cap. The upside: she was very easy to spot. 

Enthusiastic cheering section for the 100 breaststroke.

Collaborative design a la Picasso.

It was a very long day. We were there for nearly 11 hours, since Gavin was part of the morning group and Lucy the afternoon. But they both had a ball, hanging out the whole time with their pals on the Central Vermont Swim Club bench, cheering on their teammates, and using the coach's Sharpies to decorate each other. (The marker finally came off later that night after what seemed like hours of rubbing with sunscreen, and an extra bath apiece. I think next time they will choose to be a bit more conservative with their body decorations.) Luckily, Austin and I brought books and snacks and had some nice parents to chat with in the stands. The kids have declared that they can't wait to do this again (and Lucy has asked to pick up an extra practice-night each week to get ready) so I think that means I'll be spending many more hours this winter in the humid, chlorine-saturated pool air watching these guys swim.

Halloween

 

It has been such a gorgeous fall. The weather was glorious until about a week ago, when the leaves all fell, a deep freeze came on, the horses went home, and a wind gust blew the trampoline into the branches of the apple tree. (The tree will likely recover, but we may have to retire the trampoline.) It can't be Halloween without dismal weather. True to form, Halloween night was 35 degrees and rainy.

Zombie Minnie and Zombie Ariel

 The kids were not dissuaded by the weather from the week of Halloween festivities. Lucy and her friends went to the middle school dance (First dance! Squee!) dressed as Zombie Disney Characters and won best group costume.

 

Treebeard the Ent

 Gavin stuck to his resolve to dress up as Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings. He has been talking about this costume for six months. I was rather hoping he would forget, and opt for something easy I could get in the cosume aisle at Wal-Mart. But he persisted, and I did my best with some foam, fake ivy, twigs from the yard, an entire roll of brown duct tape, and a couple of felt Hobbits.

 

Hobbits Merry and Pippin along for the ride.

Our huge pumpkin-carving parties of years past have given way to a nice little family night in. I've decided October is too busy and too crammed with other parties. And I love carving pumpkins, but never got to carve one of my own when I was busy being a party host. We had a yummy dinner and listened to spooky music and let the creative juices flow. Afterward, we watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. It's a classic for a reason.

Carving is serious business.



Austin's Teenage Mutant Ninja Pumpkin

Spooky!

 A satisfying Halloween season was had by all. There were three Halloween parties, one dance, and two nights of trick-or-treating (Halloween night and Halloween Eve at the Norwich dorms). The kids ended up with pounds of candy. Even they are going to have a hard time consuming all of this before Christmas!

 

Trading loot with Trick-or-Treat pals.

Montreal

Austin is the current president of a lawyer's organization that holds a conference in Montreal every year. The hotel contract is up, and the Omni Hotel REALLY wants to get the new bid. So they invited us up to Montreal to enjoy two complimentary nights in their hotel to check it out. A free weekend away in one of my favorite cities ever? Yes, please!

 

Eating croissants in Notre Dame square.

Austin helps a street performer into his straitjacket.

Kites for sale in Chinatown.

It is rare that I would say that the best part of a trip was the hotel. But the Omni really outdid itself trying to get Austin's attention. They led us into a very nice guestroom, but then opened the internal door onto the kids' room -- a massive space with two TVs, an enormous table and chandelier, and more square footage than our house! Stairs led from our room down to theirs, which was on the floor below us in the hotel.

Taken from the landing.
When was the last time you had a hotel room with a landing?!

Lucy was amazed by the height of the drapes.

 The bathroom was larger than the guestroom. The kids' favorite part was the bidet, which they found completely hilarious and made regular use of. My favorite part was the enormous bathtub with a view of Mount Royal. The hotel had already closed their outdoor pool, but the tub was nearly large enough to swim laps.

Suited up for their "swim"

The hotel suite was so big the kids entertained themselves by playing hide-and-seek. For hours. There were seemingly endless places to hide. 

Gavin's best hiding spot: between the tub and the wall.

Lucy's best spot: between the stairs and the window.



In quest of breakfast.

We ran to a patisserie before we checked out of the hotel so we could grab some croissants and chocolatines for breakfast, with a few more for the road. Sitting at my computer now eating a half-day-old chocolatine, I am amazed that I am only two hours south of a major world city that makes the most delicious pastries, and wondering why nobody in the U.S. can make a decent croissant. And wondering why I don't escape to Montreal more often. I would even settle for an ordinary hotel room!