We are staying near Chambéry, in my mum’s house. That’s where I was brought up. We left Guingamp at 4am this morning and drove 1000 km in about 11 hours. There was traffic, but not as much as I expected. I drove all the way with a few breaks, and I am shattered.
There is a big family gathering tomorrow to celebrate my brother’s 30th Birthday. There will be 30 people: uncles and aunts and cousins.
Next week, I will be going to the “Colloque Biblique Francophone” while the family stays here.
I’ve had a painful throat since thursday. It’s kept me awake at nights and I am now feeling rather tired. But I waited until this morning to go to see the doctor. It is tonsilitis again. Third time this year. I haven’t had anything that required me to go to the doctor for many years. But now, for the third time in three month, I have to go and be put on medication. That’s life I suppose. If it comes back regularly, we may have to consider removing the Tonsils, but the Doctor warned me it is very painful for an adult.
Well, I am feeling much better. I slept well last night, the first real night sleep since Sunday night. No more fever, but the throat is still hurting slightly. Thanks to Painkillers, it is not too much of a problem. Just hoping this tonsilitis is on its way out for good.
Esther wasn’t feeling well a couple of weeks ago and has pretty much recovered. Jean-Baptiste has an infection in a painful part of his body. I have a sore throat; only Maxime and Benjamin seem to be doing fine for the time being. But for how long?
For Christmas, we bought a selection of games to play as a family. One of them is a traditional French  card game called “Le mille Bornes”. It was created in 1947, and I remember playing it when I was a kid. The goal is simple: you must be the first to reach 1000 kms. There are various cards to attack your opponents and try to stop them. It is fun for kids and grown up from Jean-Baptiste’s age onwards, but a bit difficult for Maxime. I remember playing it as a kid, it’s great to play it again.
Christmas day was fairly quiet. The children got up early, but not too early. They opened some of their presents before we went to church, and we convinced them to keep some to open after the service. The service was good. I had kept it fairly simple so that it didn’t last too long for people to go back to their families. Somehow, about 20 people turned up, which is great considering it was Christmas morning. About half of the people were visitors who had come to see their families.
Lunch was straightforward. We had some salad with prawns as a starter, followed by “Confit de canard”, with small potatoes and broad beans. All this was served with a lovely burgundy wine. We weren’t hungry enough to have cheese, so we had a break before having Christmas pudding for the parents and Jelly for the kids.
In the afternoon, we relaxed. Dad helped Jean-Baptiste build up his Playmobil Police station, and Maxime’s Duplo farm. We watched Cars 2 which we’d received as a present. In the evening, we had some nems with green salad. We were all fairly tired and had an early night.
It was a blessed day.