Sunday, January 23, 2011

Christmas in the South of France- The Middle and The End

I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth.  The last few weeks have been exhausting, but I will leave all of that for another post.  Right now, I want to finally finish up our Christmas trip! (but be warned- originally I was going to break this into two posts, but who knows when I will have a chance to blog again.  So, get ready for a long post with LOTS of pictures!)

It rained a lot while we were in Opio (did I ever mention that was the name of village where our rental house was?).  The rain gave us a great excuse to spend a good bit of time just being together, watching movies, drinking wine, eating a lot of cheese, and just being lazy!  We bought a pallet of wood, and there was a constant fire blazing in the huge stone fireplace.  Luckily, the rain did break long enough a few days for us to take some little day trips.

Bath Time!


Amy thought it would be fun to give Jacob a mohawk.  His face tells you how he feels about it! :) 


Wednesday, Amy suggested we find a traditional French restaurant so everyone could experience a real French meal- cheese course and all! After some research online, we found a restaurant that was not too far from the house.  We had an amazing meal, and Jacob was an angel!  I have to be honest, I wasn't sure how long he would last.  French meals can take hours!  There were plenty of willing arms, ready to sway and rock with him the minute he even thought of getting fussy.


Nanna and Jacob playing on one of Nanna's drums.  Nanna also bought Jacob a little mini drum from the Monaco Christmas market.



Nanna and Pappy flew home on Thursday, so they could be back in the US in time for Christmas with my uncle and cousins.  It was sad to see them go, but we were so happy they came!

We spent Christmas Eve day in Nice walking through the Christmas market, shopping, and strolling along the beach.







I think I have a nursing picture from half of the towns along the French and Italian Rivieras!


Jacob, all bundled up and ready to go.  Can you tell how excited he is to be in Nice?


When Amy and Trey visited in 2009, Amy kept asking to try a crepe, but we never had the opportunity.  She finally got her crepe!







Christmas Day:
Matthew's family has the tradition of having a big Christmas morning breakfast, complete with biscuits and "Papaw's gravy".  To honor the Cabes, we decided a Christmas breakfast was a must!






 Matthew showing off the watch Jacob bought him for Christmas.


After opening presents, it was time for Dad and Matthew to finish getting the turkey ready to be cooked.  Let's just say, the process almost made me not want to eat turkey.  Almost.


For our last day, we headed to Italy!  There is a town just across the French/Italian border called San Remo. It is a really pretty seaside town with lots of shopping.  A colleague of Matthew's is Italian, and his parents have a vacation house in San Remo.  He gave us a restaurant suggestion that took us through these tiny, charming streets and up a ton of stairs.  We definitely would never have found this restaurant on our own, but we are so glad Matteo told us about it!  It was just what we wanted- a traditional Italian restaurant, and a favorite of the locals.  Nothing was written in English, and the only way we could communicate was by Matthew speaking French to the owner.  Perfect!  The meal was delicious.  Everyone ordered something different, and as the plates of steaming pasta were set on the table in front of us, it was a frenzy of forks as we all eagerly tried a bite of each others.  We are lucky there were no fork-induced injuries, as fast as the forks were flying around the table!  Then came the tiramasu.  It was everything I hoped it would be, and more.  Just writing about it makes me want to get in the car and drive back to San Remo right now!








Jacob's new teddy bear, his Christmas present from Matthew and me.  Again, he can hardly control his excitement...
 



And that's it!  We had a great 10 days together.  The time went by way too quickly, and I can't wait until I go home in April for Amy and Trey's wedding!!!

Just a few more random pictures, because I am sure you were thinking there weren't enough in this post already! :)




2 comments:

Amber said...

He is so stinking cute! I love all that hair! How in the world do you get him to hold still long enough AND keep his eyes open for pictures? He's such a cutie pie :)
Glad to see that you guys got to spend a nice xmas together. I can't believe what y'all are wearing in the outdoors pictures -- was it really that warm? That looks like my kind of xmas destination!

Monica said...

Wow! Absolutely gorgeous place you live! What an adventure you guys are on and the stories you get to tell your children! Thanks for sharing.