A Day off School

So the girls (well, two out of the three anyway) were home from school today because their teachers were 'on strike'. Not all the teachers in the school, just the ones who felt like it. ONE day before the Christmas holidays. When they're finishing for the holidays on December 16th. Which is basically only HALF the month of December. I'm really having a hard time being sympathetic to this one, or mustering up any feeling of teacher solidarity.
So poor Indie got packed off to school while Anna and Zoe danced around, singing, because they were getting the day off. And despite all my griping about how the girls never seem to be in school etc. etc. (you've heard it all before) we had a great day. It helped that it snowed ALL day, big fluffy white flakes, so we had a very cozy time making stew, baking cookies, making Christmas cards and presents for the girls' teachers, listening to Christmas carols etc. We also had a snowy walk into town for a little light Christmas shopping (Anna, at 7, has woken up to this 'gift-giving' idea and has been doing extra 'chores' in order to afford Christmas presents for all of us) and then had hot chocolate and pastries in a warm cafe. Pretty good for a day off school.

Hot chocolate, chausson aux pommes and a pain au chocolat

Then Toby and the girls played in the snow for the afternoon. Here were the results

 Rolling the snowballs for the snowman

 Building him up

Anna wanted to call him 'Frosty', and when I suggested she think of something more original, she tentatively suggested, 'Snowy?'. What can I say, she clearly has a gift.

Our chalet looked very cozy in the storm

So tomorrow is the girls' last day of school before the holidays, and Toby and I have been invited to go and share in their Christmas lunch! This is a special invitation extended only to the 'foreigners' at the school, and the idea is that we're to go in and talk about our own country's special Christmas traditions to the kids, and also speak to them in English. Now that the French government has declared English the official second language in the school system, the school is looking for ways to boost its English content outside the classroom too. They're even going to have an Anglophone 'week' in the spring! Looks like we might get invited back.

It's rather awkward trying to big up Christmas traditions unique to Canada, of course, (oh, how I envied the Finnish woman sitting next to me in the planning meeting - I think she even comes from Lapland, damn her). And even the special Quebec traditions like Reveillons, that I will try to claim for my own (although we definitely never celebrated it in my Scottish family, even if we have been known to eat tourtiere), won't sound that original or interesting to the French, but the girls and I did our best and made this poster to show off Canada and Quebec - there are lots of English words on it at least for the kids to practice. Eggnog, anyone?