Yesterday we had a lovely day since in the morning we travelled to Maasricht (see hubby's blog for more details of that) and then went to the home of a friend's for BBQ and dinner. They have 4 kids, with the second and fourth the same ages as our two. My little guy, when asked to greet the children (as all Europeans do, to kiss the cheek of the other) robustly grasped the shoulders of the littlest girl and planted a juicy wet one right on the lips--we of course laughed, the girl swiped her face with the back of her sleeve and our guy dissolved into a puddle of confused tears, "Don't LAUGH at me!". She was most gracious, and forgave him immediately and I think will be his European girlfriend (sorry RB you've been temporarily replaced by another blonde cutie--this one has ringlets)
As you can see by this photo, my oldest got involved in play, and since these children don't speak english and our kids only say "merci, s'il vous/tu plait and non" at this point, it was a relatively graceful and peaceful playdate...NO ARGUMENTS!
Dinner was great--the meal consisted of several salads, such as a carrot/cucumber salad with a mayo, pepper, cardamom dressing (and not your regular helmanns in this country--this is like caviaar or filet for this is light, bright, creamy and not oily or cloying--beautiful). Accompanying the salad was a platter off the briquette BBQ that offered pork chops, margueze sausages, BIG pieces of not really cured bacon (take your normal streaky bacon, multiply its thickness to about 0.5 cm and eliminate the spatter and most of the saltiness--they call this lard which sounds gross but tastes gourmet)
The conversations were stilted, but I did my best, and felt most comfortable in the kitchen and chatting to our hostess. I helped and watched to get lots of ideas and when talking about food, my vocabulary came to me easily. It was when I was trying to talk about the past tense or the non food activities in my life that I smiled and shrugged a lot or called in help from the men sitting around the dining table.
The kids grazed then went and watched the typical Disney films but in french dubbing, which I suggested so that they could hear new words in a familiar context--its surprising how much you understand when you already know the story!
We had to leave for les enfants' bedtime, but will gather again soon I hope, as we all had a great time and their house is lovely with rabbits, ducks, play equipment, chickens, and all the outdoor toys our children miss by living in a loft away from the parks/playgrounds we're so accustomed to.
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