Day 13: Joyeux Noel!

This is the month, and this the happy morn
wherein the son of Heaven's eternal King...
Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of clay  ~  Milton

Sunday, December 25, 2011  ~  Christmas Day

On the day of Our Lord's birth, we had another sunny morning.

We gathered around our small tree, a Nativity that Mom and Dad had bought...and a tree of Ferrero Rocher. (Mom, Dad and James had already gone to morning Mass by the time we woke up.)

After buttoning on coats and wrapping on scarfs, we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. As the train crossed the bridge over the Seine, the Tower appeared on the opposite bank, and a group of children in our car gasped in awe. Everyone else chuckled at their amazement. The lines were atrocious, because all the other tourists knew one thing--the Eiffel Tower is about the only attraction open on Christmas Day. However, there were pigeons to watch and conversations to listen in on in English and Italian.

An Engrish Funny for you.

Once we reached the top, the view was fun, even though it had gotten cloudy (I especially liked seeing Sacre Coeur again). Still, it was too cold and windy a day for me. (I felt much better after I got a Nutella et banagne crepe near Notre Dame.)

Taking the train back to the area near the Ile de la Cite, we wandered through Les Halles.
We found some fun graffiti,

 then the Rue Nicolas Flamel,

and THEN we found the Alchemist's house.

It had all these old etchings of what appeared to be angels in the sandy stone.

Finally we stopped at St-Eustache, a church with more beautiful stained glass of the Virgin martyrs.

Passing by Notre Dame on our way home, we saw a great crowd still there.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner in the apartment of pasta, bread, Mom's homemade eggplant, wine, and for dessert Berthillon's famous marron (chestnut) ice cream, and Yule logs.

This one was berry-flavored with chocolate icing.

After dinner we had a rousing game of Minister's Cat--although since we're Catholic we said Father Rick's cat. Anyway, the way you play is the first person says "The Minister's Cat is an amiable cat." Everyone claps along to a rhythm, and it goes on to the next person: "The Minister's Cat is an antagonistic cat." You list adjectives with the letter A until one person can't think of one. Then they are out, and you go on to the letter B. We had a very Merry Christmas, and it was one that I will always remember.