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Switching on Christmas

In true English fashion, December 1st means it’s officially Christmas mode—no sooner, no later. Suddenly, the lights are up, Christmas songs take over the radio, shops go all out with decorations, and, of course, it’s time to pick out your tree.

We fully embraced the spirit last weekend! With the help of crisp, cold winter weather, we dove straight into decorating the house. 🎄✨

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Sony RX100 – 42mm f3.2 – ISO 1250 – Chiara doing the watch close to the naked tree with her angel dress – in the newly arranged kids corner of the living room (still under design).

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 40mm f2.8 – ISO 1250 – Olivier helping with the decoration of the tree. He was mostly tasting all the stuff, you never know when they will pass the due date those plastic balls. He probably ingested quite a bit of stuff in the process as well, that may explain his recent nappy rashes …

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 40mm f2.8 – ISO 2000 – New arrival in our 2012 version, a squirrel, joining last year Owl and previous year birds. Chiara asked why he has been eating his pine cone for so long – and we said he needed some alone time, so since then he can stay in the tree and not travel around the house …

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Sony RX100 – 28mm f2 – ISO 160 – On Sunday we sent to a Circus in Hyde Park, part of a winter outdoor village, surprisingly Olivier was quite hooked too. Chiara likes clowns, a lot.

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Sony RX100 – 28mm f2 – ISO 125 – Inside space was hard to get, so we went for a sib-zero picnic instead. After an hour Chiara complained of cold feet (for the first time), so we know her sensitivity is fine (we were cold too). Olivier had a cold pre-cooked chicken and peas, but did not seem to complain (food is food). They both already had a cold, so we did took much extra risks …

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Sony RX100 – 28mm f2 – ISO 125 – Best part of the day was those high swings. It was quite impressive but Chiara and Megan loved it. We did had to cheap a bit about Chiara’s height through … but just a bit

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Chiara just turned 3 !

We celebrated Chiara 3rd birthday last week-end, with most of her friends. We wanted something cosy in our place – and invited 12 of her friends over for two hours. We had a military schedule to avoid house destruction, strict rules (everyone downstairs) and plenty of found to keep them in control.

Due to space restrictions, we invited parents to go over to the local pub to relax – but somehow the message was not understood loud and clear – and we ended with 12 kids, about 20 adults and a few babies – which stretched our place despite careful preparation.

Chiara had lots of fun, she was impressed to have everyone around, not too shy – and she was obviously trilled by all her presents, so thanks to all her friends for coming over !

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 40mm f2.8 – ISO 640 – Chiara getting ready to welcome the crowd, all dressed up, verifying the decoration is in order. We removed everything from our living room to make room for the monkey music play group.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 40mm f2.8 – ISO 640 – Olivier getting excited too – although he is probably smiling because he is standing up, he is only happy when moving those days. He also loved the balloons …

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 17-40mm f4 – ISO 250 – In the middle of the music activity … our new floor survived the activity pretty well, our ears a bit less – but at this point most adults had escaped to the kitchen or the garden already.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 17-40mm f4 – ISO 5000/1450 – Tea time, song, candles and cake. The power of chocolate and sweets is pretty strong – so we could managed 12 of them around the table for a good 20 minutes.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 17-40mm f4 – ISO 400 – And to finish, gift opening. For girls, exchanging cards is also pretty important. She was spoiled, so I guess Santa Claus will be able to go easy on the birthday girl.

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Studio – Part 2

Below are a few more pictures from our studio shot – all pictures are now sorted, I can’t say the same for Olivier Baptism and Chiara’s birthday but they will be coming.

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