Teagan's 15th-birthday breakfast

Teagan's 15th-birthday breakfast in the making - crepes! - by three young chefs

skaters

A glimpse of Alice and Lily at their figure-skating classes (CPA - Centre de Patinage Artistique, Centre-sud).   Not many skaters there on Dec 27th, so lots of glassy ice for practising fancy stuff.
(I'm sure the blurriness is on account of their speed!)

Alice and Lily through the glass

 

Lily

Alice

Christmas in Montreal

Christmas Day in Montreal - first-ever for Meo and Doco

first, into the stockings ...

… then, a walk-and-roll in the no-snow streets ...

… on two Santa scooters ...

… even Doco gets a turn ...

… but upstaged by a dancer on two wheels

A rue Fabre Christmas dinner for 14: a huge tortiere (including venison, chicken, duck, smoked duck) by Owen's partner, Marc; roast vegetables by Eric; soup and an "Elizabeth cake" by Paul-Antoine and Emile; and TOASTS!  After dinner, a play presented by Doco, Lily and Alice.  "The untold adventures of the shepherds on their way to Bethlehem" (Lily as shepherd, Alice as sheep) - through a forest with familiar fairies ("You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs be not seen…"), to a village tavern with flamenco dancers, to a bull-fight, and finally to the manger.  Oh, and Christmas music.

Marc, Owen, Thomas, Paul-Antoine, Doco, Mathieu, Alice 

Doco, Mathieu, Flor, Rachel, Eric, Lily, Marc, Owen, Thomas, Gabriela
(not in photos: Emile and Meo)

Christmas Eve in Ottawa

Family presents on Christmas Eve in Ottawa - Chow-Harris and Harris-Taillefer and Meo-Doco (and Dodo presents from Oxford) -  before traveling by van to Montreal for Christmas Eve night.  A lovely time.

December 23rd Carols and Song in Ottawa

It seems that our Harris-family tradition of December 23rd carol-singing continues wherever … this year for the second time in Ottawa (first time, 3 years ago, when Colin and Janet were just home from their Boston adventures - and I was there!).  Rachel and family came too.  Douglas and family were some thousands of miles to the east - with Eric and Anne-Francoise in Lille, France.  Here, it began at 6pm with wonderful food by Janet and crew - more eating than singing for the first 2 hours.  I played carols for the "littles" and whomever else didn't have a mouthful.   Christmas music in the air.

At 8pm the carols began to ring.  Led by Rachel and egged on by Janet, the house shook, especially for "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas North" - sung in parts by birthday month (Jan + Feb, etc.) for the days-of-Christmas 6-12.  So fun.

At 9pm, the crew and music changed.  Duelling keyboards - Megan Jerome on piano, Mats Lindeberg on electric keyboard - facing each other at an angle across the living room.  (photos anyone?)  Songs from two song-books by Janet, Rowan, and Colin - one created in 2011, another completed and copied an hour before the party.  ABBA, the Beatles, Elton John, Johnny Cash, Grease, Meghan Trainor, Adele, Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Megan Jerome, and and and …   All enthusiastically sung for hours by several generations.  Somewhere in there, Doco invited his eldest grand-daughter to dance, and they weren't alone.  A splendid pre-Christmas night!  (and a wonderful birthday for me!!!)

Doco, Cathy, Rowan, Eric

Rachel, Doco, Rowan, Zeus, Eric
(with Koko's flower triptych on the wall)

Rachel, Cathy, Rowan, Ella, Eirc

on our way back to Canada

After a glorious Douglas-and-family time in Oxford, Doco and I are off to Heathrow and Montreal for Christmas and New Year's with Rachel and Colin and families.  Thank you all!

Douglas's digs

Douglas's academic corner-for-the-year in New College, visited on our last-day-in-Oxford walk with Douglas, before our ascent of the New College tower.

the "new" part of New College

Douglas's grotesque on guard ...

… and his room-with-a-view