Save-the-date!

We just sent our Save-the-Date today so you should be receiving yours shortly if you live in the US (desolée pour les francais mais il vous faudra attendre les invitations)

And now for the details:
First, we rented guest houses for everyone from July 18th to August 1st, so there is no need to look for hotel.

Then, don't forget to buy your plane ticket for Geneva, as my hometown is on the border between France and Switzerland. Geneva is the closest airport (about 30 minutes from Habère-Poche)

We would recommend that you rent a car since it is the countryside and you will not find public transportation.

There is lots of things to do in the area. Hiking, swimming, biking, horse-back riding, gliding...

Here is the website for things to do in the Vallée Verte where Habère-Poche is located.

While in Habère-Poche, you will be very close to go visit Geneva, Evian and Thonon-les-bains (where I was born!)

From Thonon and Evian, you can easily take the boat to go to Geneva or Lausanne.

Don't forget to go check out the springs both in Evian and Thonon and maybe enjoy a day at the spa. And you should definitely go for a swim in the Leman lake, there is a nice beach in Thonon called la Pinède that I love, it is near the Château de Ripaille where you can enjoy wine and walks in the very old oak forest.

Or you can go to Lyon, it is a bit further, about 2 hours, but definitely worth it. I would recommend taking the train from Annemasse to arrive directly in the center of Lyon at the Pardieu station.

You can go visit Chamonix as well, at the foot of the Mont-Blanc, and don't forget to go to the Mer de Glace!

While you are in Chamonix, Italy is right across the mountains, through the Mont-Blanc tunnel, and Aosta is only 2 hours from Habère-Poche!

If you want to go hiking, you can check out my dad's blog, he and my mother are out and about all the time in the mountains. The blog has great pictures and it can give you ideas on where to go hiking.

We will keep posting about things to do as soon as they come to mind :)

As soon as you know which dates you will be able to come, please leave a comment on that post. We would love if everyone could be there for the full two weeks but we understand it might not be possible.

Don't forget, the wedding is on July 25th!

Christmas tree

Our Christmas tree is up as well as all the Christmas decorations! We got some great stockings hanging on the mantle, we are just missing some lights for outside.
Here are some pictures, enjoy!

Putting up the decorations

On the mantle

The finishing touches

Ta da!

Thanksgiving!

Last thursday was Thanksgiving, it was special because it was Cheryl's last day in Dallas and it was the first time I was preparing the turkey by myself!
Enjoy the pictures!

The day before, preparing the brine
While Cheryl was preparing the green beans

The brine where the turkey spent the night. It's lots of salt and sugar, carrots, celery, onions, cloves, peppercorns and lots of spices

Our organic free-range 14 pounds turkey

The morning of. happy Thanksgiving!

Preparing the stuffing. Chestnuts, apples, celery, onions...

Basting the turkey so it stays delicious and moist

Almost ready!

Waiting to be cooked (the oven was barely big enough for the turkey so the sides had to wait)

Buffet style. Sweet potatoe casserole, mac and cheese, mashed potatoe, bread, ham, cranberry relish... Miam miam!

Pumpkin pie for dessert, we had pecan pie too

Tom turkey is ready!

Jay is carving

Table is set (our beautiful farm-style table)

Cheryl, Tiffany and Rich mingling while waiting for the food to be ready

Michael and Corrine

We prepared a cheese plate so people wouldn't get impatient!

From the left: Corrine, Michael, Rich, Cheryl, Lizzie, Jay, Mike, Tiffany, Joe and Krystal

A full table!

Sushi night

Last week, the girls and I went to Oishii, our favorite sushi place, for one last dinner with Cheryl. Cheryl and Sabrina moved to Montreal on friday to be with Francois and Petula (the cat)
We did get to spend Thanksgiving together which was great, we wish her all the happiness in the world!

Tiffany and Cheryl

Cheryl and me

Enjoying delicious rolls!

Kim and Tiffany

The banana tree: How it came to an end

No comment

Madonna

Last weekend I went to Houston with my friend Cheryl to see Madonna in concert. It was great, we had the best time. Madonna was incredible and gave an awesome show!

Sorry the pics are not really good, it wasn't easy since she was moving and jumping constantly and the light show was pretty impressive.

This was some sort of strings of screen so we could see her in the middle while something was playing on the screen. Really cool!



After the concert, tired but happy

On the way back home, we stop at the statue of Sam Houston. It's very white.

A little history...

Election party

On November 4th we had an election party at the house. We were all very excited when Barack Obama was elected the next president, so we popped some champagne to celebrate!

Jay, Brad, Tiffany, the Sabster, Cheryl and me
Obama giving his first speech as President-elect

Rich and Tiffany

Toasting to Obama's victory!

Fall

Hello everyone!

Sorry it took so long to post anything. Two month, I can't believe it!

Anyway it is fall now and we went to the arboretum back in september, so here are some pics we didn't have the time to post earlier with work, and wedding stuff, and being lazy in general...
And a pic of one of the pumpkins we carved for Halloween. We didn't dress up this year though.

It won't take us long to post more stuff since last saturday our friends threw us a great engagement party! Lizzie and Cheryl organized everything and it was a blast, so stay tuned for the pics!

The last of the water lilies


Can you see the dragonfly?

It was late morning but there was still dew in the shade






Pumpkin!

It is not scary, I was going for some kind of lacy (dentelle) design. I wanted to drill a lot more holes but Jay wouldn't let me use the power drill so I had to use a screwdriver which gave me blisters...