I opened up my My American Market newsletter today, and discovered that personalized Christmas ornaments have finally arrived in France!!
Last year at the Christmas market I searched for someone who made personalized picture frames or other items for my in-laws, but found none. Luckily there's Vivement Noel! They offer a number of different ornaments, picture frames, and other decorations (including Yankee candle factory candles) that are difficult to find otherwise in France. There's one called 'En fin chez nous!' that I might offer to my brother and sister in law since they're now settled in their new house. They are also expecting their first child early February, but haven't made the name public yet, so I don't know if I should go for one of the family ornaments with just "Baby" in place of his name.
The ornaments seem reasonably priced (14€), though the Yankee candles are a bit expensive for me at 21€ for the medium size and 28€ for large. Where else are you going to find cranberry chutney or Christmas cookie candles though? The snowman decorations are really cute, but with my unemployment benefits a bit out of budget. This is a small travesty because stuffed snowmen holding hands and wearing knitted sweaters are practically essential for Christmas :)
I'm also working on my own personalized project: my most requested recipes in French. I can't count the number of times people have asked for my recipe of oatmeal cookies or applesauce spice muffins. Since I'm low on cash but not on time, I'm translating, converting, and doing the layout for the "best of" my American cooking and baking.
Next up: rummaging the fake tree and shoe box of decorations out the garage.
3 comments:
The recipe book idea is adorable! My good friend here, Sarah, is an artist made one last xmas for her friends and family back home. It's a really lovely little gift! :) Good on you for getting started so early. The farthest I've gotten is to mark the calendar with the day that I absolutely MUST send the big xmas box home to by. :P
I got the idea a while ago, and then I started thinking about the work of translating the recipes, and then I realized I should probably have pictures, which means I need to make all the dishes and leave time to include the pictures before getting the whole thing printed, so I told myself this weekend I had no reason to not start!
I love the recipe book idea! Mom has been saying she was going to make on for us for years but I've yet to see it.
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