At last - January 7th has arrived!

[Alice Abbott]

... and peace reigns in the Abbott household. Eve is probably wreaking havoc aboard an Air France flight from Paris CDG to Los Angeles at this very moment!

We had an "interesting" visit. We had the benefit of her opinion on everything from the workings of the fosse septique (of which she had never heard before coming to France), the state of the Union (which she seems to know FAR too much about for any average non-US living mortal to handle), what I should and should not be growing in the garden (despite the fact that all there is growing at the moment is a row of cabbages and sprouts and that she has never grown so much as a lettuce in her life), what she considers essential for a balanced diet (which differs wildly from my own opinions, I mean, is maple syrup and rib sauce REALLY that important to the average diet?).

She has spent an absolute fortune buying us wildly inappropriate Christmas presents and then other items she considers we just can't live without, like a host of rugs, throws, cushions and the like. Beautiful but not really necessary at the moment - we are still revelling in the fact that we have walls between the various rooms and a full compliment of floorboards.

She has in turn enchanted and terrorised Pia's best friend Aristide (the 80 year old who now manages the odd English sentence thanks to Pia's insistence, although what use he will possibly make of high fives and "right on!" still makes me wonder. I think he was secretly taken by this weird whirlwind as he seems to have been visiting more than normal over the last three weeks and even managed a TIE when he called for an aperitif on Xmas day!

Both twins did their utmost to avoid this loud, perfumed creature and for the first week would not even look at her, which did not go down well. Neither of them actually cried when she picked them up and gabbled at them in baby talk but their faces were pictures of confusion as they can both speak quite a few words of perfectly decent English (and even the odd French word) and have never heard anyone speak to them that way before.

The plus side?

The things she brought over with her - pecan and macadamia nuts, cranberries and Hershey candy.
The night she babysat so we could go out to dinner at a friend's house.
The fact that she is STILL speaking to all my siblings - that is a small miracle in itself.

But the best of all? The fact that she will not be back for a while and our contact will be via Skype for the foreseeable future (that is unless she carries out her threat to come in the summer to see all those little yachts in the marina at La Rochelle and eat in the waterfront restaurants there)...

[MuddyWitch]

Oh Alice, I SO look forward to your posts! You are my idea of a hero for so many reasons, but putting up with you Mother is fairly high up on the list! You report it with such flare you REALLY must write that book! (I'd like an autographed copy please, but only if you let me pay for it!)

MW

[Thomzo]

You managed it - congratulations.

I'm sure you can think of a reason why she shouldn't come over in the summer. Or maybe she could stay with Aristide?

Zoe

[Flo]

Alice you do have to realise that all grannies are recycled teenagers - her parents must have had a whirl with her from the sounds of it.

And we all think that it's our job to teach the grand children totally wrong things as well as to give totally wrong gifts.

Most children fail to train their parents properly as future grandparents I swear.

Rarely do we parents translate into reasonable humans when our children leave home. Either that or I've failed as spectacularly well in the same way as your mother.