Chicken Kiev extravaganza

Saturday and Friday were good days for friendship.

We went over to south Paris to see old friends and their cute son and all of us went on to the Stade Charlety and their winter attractions, ice skating, sledding etc, which our children loved.  The children received an excellent balancing game (which they have played with a lot) as a present.  We had an excellent time all together.  I felt really proud of the boys when they helped the little one to get around the ice rink.  We stayed for pizzas and it was very warming to see our friends.  They didn't mind my topping up the Biafine in the bathroom and gave me compresses to ease the pain under my arm.  My girlfriend is extremely understanding and intuitive and it was really great to be able to talk freely to her.

Our old friends from Luxembourg passed by on Saturday morning to give us much needed hugs in person and a rather excellent box of Quality Street which I've been scoffing at a rate of knots.  It was great to catch up with them and their children; we hope to go over there to see them next year.

We also met a dear, sweet American friend for a coffee in Bercy and she brought boxes of chicken kiev and curry sauces from M&S, a new Kusmi Detox Tea for me, homemade banana bread and cute Xmas cookies and games for the boys (one of which we have all enjoyed playing together with great hilarity).  We had a long chat which was really lovely.  Hope to catch up again in early January.

All these outings really make our Christmas holidays at home much more fun and warm.  Friends are so important.  Thank you to those friends who made the last couple of days special, thank you for your presents and your thoughts, they are much much appreciated.  Thank you too for just being our friends.