Opening Christmas Presents!

Salut mes amis, 

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it was time to open the rest of the presents! We started with our stockings filled by Père Noël, Father Christmas. I hugged my furry blue stocking with anticipation over the goodies that I'd soon find inside.

First, I handed Juliette her own pink stocking. It's always nice to be considerate of others before thinking of yourself, after all.

Reaching deep into the depths of her stocking, Juliette first pulled out a can of lemon-lime soda. Laughing hard, we both knew that this soda can was the inside joke of our own Oncle Bernard - only our Uncle Bernard would stick a can of soda in a stocking!

Next, she pulled out a pretty pink hair clip . . .

. . . and then even more hair clips tumbled out! Juliette will have fun accessorizing her hair this year.

Finally, Juliette pulled out a cross bracelet made with the loveliest of lavender beads. This will be perfect to wear to church!

Then it was my turn. Not surprisingly, I pulled out a can of grape soda first. This time, I managed to keep a straight face . . . at least for a minute anyway! I opened the can, took a swig, and immediately burst out laughing, soda bursting out my nostrils all the while.

After recovering myself, I reached in and pulled out this pair of hairbows in metallic silver. These will go great with outfits in my color scheme, oh yes!

I think Père Noël must know that we Moreau girls like to accessorize because the last thing I pulled out was a bag of jewelry. I now have a new pearl necklace . . .

. . . and a beaded heart charm bracelet perfect for Valentine's Day parties!

Next, we had two large gift bags to open from our parents.

Juliette reached into her bag and pulled out a grey sweatshirt with a genuine The Fault in Our Stars graphic on the front. "Cet sweat-shirt sera parfait à porter avec mes vêtements de danse!" Juliette was excited at finally finding the perfect sweatshirt to wear over her dance clothes.

What did nos parents find for me? I eagerly reached into my gift bag, pulling out . . .

. . . a grey and black-striped sweater, such a wardrobe staple! This will be perfect for school and Science Club meetings. I think my dad picked this one out; he has one just like it in his closet, haha!

Next, it was time to open presents sent to me by friends. This one, I was told, is from my friend Katherine.

Katherine sent me a red fleece poncho that she made herself. Merci beaucoup, Katherine! I love it. Red is certainly my color and one I definitely love to wear.

She also sent me a matching red fleece scarf, which is awesome! I'm so going to layer this over my winter coat this year.

My best friend Nathalie sent me this next one. Of course there's a bonhomme de neige, snowman, on the bag; Nathalie loves snow so much!

I can't believe my eyes! Nathalie sent me a my very own copy of my absolute favorite Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! She must have seen my blog pal Charlie's post about getting her own Harry Potter book.

I can't wait to reread this treasure. Nathalie knows me so well!

Juliette handed me a silver gift box with a tag that said it was from my friend Sadie. Hmm, I didn't know Sadie was sending me a gift. Quelle surprise! 
 

Inside, I found a zodiac bracelet made for me by Sadie herself. It has all of the colors of the Leo spectrum in it; how pretty!

Here is a close-up of the bracelet. Thank you so much, Sadie! I absolutely love it and will think of you every time I wear it.

The last present was from my friend Susie! I was really reluctant to unwrap this one, not because I wasn't anticipating what was inside (because I was!). I just didn't want to tear up the wrapping paper - it had Princess Anna of Arendelle on it!

I very carefully unwrapped it, in order to save the special gift wrap for my scrapbook. Don't laugh; Frozen is the best movie ever! Queen Elsa is far superior to Princess Anna, though.

Susie sent me a holiday-themed activity book to amuse myself during these cold wintry months.

There are mazes and connect-the-dots, lots of things to keep me busy! Thank you, Susie! I will have fun with this for sure.

We received a lot of nice presents this year; I absolutely love everything! I think I'm going to go put on my new sweater, read some Harry Potter, and drink some grape soda now, hehe. Before I go, have a couple of shots of Juliette and me in front of our silvery Christmas tree.

I hope everyone who celebrated Christmas had a nice one (or had a nice whatever it is you celebrate!). Thanks for letting us share our presents with you!

What was your favorite holiday gift this past year?

Ton amie,
Sophie 

Le 22 août: La fête de l'anniversaire!

Salut mes amis,

Since I was traveling on our actual 14th birthday (August 9th), Juliette and I decided to celebrate our special day on a later date. It was important to us to have a party together with all of our friends from school. We decided to hold the event on Wednesday, August 22nd from 2-4 pm in the Fair Hollow recreational room. Do you like our party invitation? We picked a set of them up earlier this summer!

This is what Juliette and I decided to wear for the day. I'm on the left, while Juliette is on the right:

Our first party guest to arrive was Chiara Martini, a fellow foreign exchange friend of mine. She is from a small town outside of Florence, Italy! 

Juliette's friend Jessica McConnell arrived next:

Maura Cassidy, another good friend of Juliette's, struggled in next, her arms full with two rather large boxes:

Finally, our last party guest arrived - my very best friend, Nathalie Thibodeau! Nathalie's another foreign exchange acquaintance; she's from Montréal, Québec, Canada:

Now that Chiara, Jessica, Maura, and Nathalie had all arrived, the party could finally begin. We decided to start off with a classic party game: Musical Chairs! Juliette and our friends got into place around a group of chairs, while I prepared to turn on the music:

When I turned the music on (Fifty Sixty by Alizée), the girls moved around the group of chairs, some even dancing to the music while doing so. When I turned the music off, they all quickly scrambled to secure a chair. The problem was that there were five girls and only four chairs. One girl was going to be chair-less and, therefore, out of the game. That was Chiara! 

The game continued. Jessica was out next, then Maura. Finally, only Juliette and Nathalie were left with one chair to walk around. Who would secure the chair and be the winner?

 When I stopped the music, both Juliette and Nathalie dashed over to the chair. There was such a ruckus being made that I wasn't sure who had won at first. Juliette was clearly sitting on the chair, but . . . wait! Did I see legs sticking out from underneath her? I sure did! Both Nathalie and Juliette were trying to claim the chair, but Juliette was barely hanging on. She soon found herself on the floor beside the chair, which means that she was out of the game.

. . . so Nathalie was declared the winner! As a competitive figure skater, she takes winning very seriously, even winning a little party game! She screamed with delight and called herself the "Champion of the Chairs" for the rest of the afternoon. Silly Nathalie! 

After playing Musical Chairs, we decided that it was cake time. After our teacher lit the candles, our friends sang Happy Birthday to us - in French and in English!

The French version goes like this:

  

Joyeux anniversaire à vous,
Joyeux anniversaire à vous,
Joyeux anniversaire Sophie et Juliette,
Joyeux anniversaire à vous!

We decided to have cupcakes instead of an actual cake. We ordered them in a variety of colors and flavors, so that everyone could pick their favorite:

When the singing stopped, Juliette and I made our wishes (nope, I'm not telling you what we wished for!), and then we blew out our candles:

We all must have been hungry! For several minutes, there wasn't much talking as we dug into our cupcakes, tortilla chips, and juice (or milk): 

Juliette and I both opted for cupcakes with chocolate icing - yum! In addition, I had chocolate milk. Juliette was more sensible and chose plain white milk:

When we finished eating, it was time for PRESENTS! I won't bore you and post them all here (though you'll be able to see them on my Facebook page in a few days), but we got some fantastic things . . .

. . . including our very own camping tent! This was a gift from our teacher:

My friend Marsali sent us a tin of French candy. Thank you, Marsali, the candy was delicious! 

Our fellow twin friends Quinn and Trinity sent us a lovely card and a bag full of presents, including . . .

. . . pink hair extensions and princess wands! Thank you, Quinn and Trinity! We loved everything.

Maya and Katherine, the friends I met at the Natick American Girl store, sent us . . . 

. . . the Weekend Fun outfit! I've been wanting this outfit so badly. Thank you, Maya and Katherine! This will get a lot of use: 

Our friends Susie and Tessa had some gifts for us as well, both of which they wrapped in American Girl catalogue pages (how thrifty!):

I received a stuffed otter whom I named Oliver, and Juliette received her very first UglyDoll: a pink one named Wippy! Thank you, Susie and Tessa! We love our new stuffed animal friends:

Maman and Papa sent Juliette a new LL Bean purse; isn't it cute?

For me, Maman and Papa sent a brand new backpack, notebook, and water bottle:

When we finished opening presents, we decided to take some fun group shots with our friends. From left to right, we have Chiara, Maura, me, Juliette, Nathalie and Jessica: 

Here we have Chiara and Maura posing for a picture and then Nathalie and Jessica posing for a picture:

And, finally, the birthday girls: 

What was your last birthday like? What kind of presents did you receive? Did you have a birthday party?

~Sophie