Happy New Year! Bonne Année et Meilleurs Voeux!

I hope you had a nice vacation and a merry Christmas! Welcome back!

It's good to be back in Martinique right now - the United States are very cold! In some states, the temperature is -30° Celcius! In Martinique it's around 28° C. That's a big difference!

There's lots to do when it's cold out, though. Especially if there's snow!

 You can make snowmen,

You can make snow angels,

You can build snow forts,

Or have snowball fights,

But my favorite thing to do in the snow is to go sledding! 

What would you want to do in the snow?

Christmas is coming!

That means we need to learn about Santa Claus (or Father Christmas).

He's the one who brings presents on Christmas Eve (but only if you've been good all year - if you were bad, he brings you coal! Not fun at all.).

Santa Claus drives through the sky in a big sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, and he visits the home of every girl and boy in the whole world in just one night.

For the rest of the year, he lives in the North Pole with his wife, Mrs. Claus, and all his elves, who help him make the toys that he delivers on Christmas Eve.

Lots of children in the United States write letters to Santa when Christmas is near. They like to tell him that they've been good, and they like to tell him what they would like for Christmas so Santa knows what to bring them.

On Christmas Eve, the children put out their stockings in front of the fireplace and the chimney, and put cookies and milk out next to Christmas tree. The stockings are there for Santa to fill with candy and treats, and the milk and cookies are there so Santa can have a snack while he's working (delivering presents all over the world is a hard job!).

On Christmas morning, the children wake up and look in their stockings for treats, and then wait for their families to get out of bed before they can open their presents.

Then everyone is thankful for their gifts, the beautiful day, and the time spent with their families.

I hope you have a fun holiday!

Merry Christmas!

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/history/first-thanksgiving/

Hello!

On Thursday November 28th, we will celebrate a very important holiday in the United States (on va célebrer une fête très importante jeudi le 28 novembre). This holiday, which happens every year on the fourth Thursday of November (il se passe la quatrième jeudi du mois de novembre), is called Thanksgiving. "Thanksgiving," translated literally into French, means "Merci d'avoir donné."

The history of this holiday goes back almost four hundred years (l'histoire de cette fête remonte presque quatre cent ans)! In 1620, 102 pilgrims (pèlerins) got on a boat called the Mayflower (ils montèrent sur un bateau qui s'appelèrent le Mayflower) and they sailed all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, from England to North America (et ils voguèrent à travers l'océan atlantique, d'angleterre jusqu'à l'amerique du nord).

But when they arrived, it was winter, and they had very little food and no shelter (ils arrivèrent en plein hiver et ils n'eurent pas de la nourriture et pas d'abri)! Many of the pilgrims died (pas mal des pèlerins moururent). But there were other people living in North America already (mais il y avait déjà des gens dans l'amerique du nord)! The pilgrims called them Indians, but we now call them Native Americans. The Native Americans helped the pilgrims survive the cold winter and showed them how to cultivate the land and grow crops, as well as where to hunt (les amérindiens aidèrent à survivre les pèlerins pendant l'hiver et ils les montèrent comment on cultive la terre et oú on chasse).

The next year, the pilgrims decided to have a feast to celebrate their survival, and they invited all the Native Americans who helped them (l'année suivante, les pèlerins decidèrent d'avoir une fête pour célebrer leur survie, et ils invitèrent tous les amérindiens qui leur aidèrent). 

However, it was not until Abraham Lincoln was President in 1863 that Thanksgiving became a national holiday (ce n'etait qu'à 1863 quand Abraham Lincoln était président, que la Thanksgiving devint une fête nationale). But the turkey has always remained the symbol of Thanksgiving (la dinde reste toujours le symbole de la Thanksgiving).

Today, Thanksgiving is one of the most important family holidays of the year (aujourd'hui, Thanksgiving, c'est une des fêtes la plus importantes de l'année)! Family members will travel across the whole USA to be together (les membres de la famille traversent tout le pays pour être ensemble). People cook all day long for Thanksgiving dinner (des gens cuisinent pendant toute la journée). We usually eat lots of turkey and gravy (la dinde et la sauce), potatoes (pommes de terre) and sweet potatoes (potates douces), cranberry sauce (sauce aux airelles), pumpkin pie (tarte à la citrouille), and apple pie (tarte aux pommes).

We also love to watch American football on Thanksgiving, and there are usually parades in the cities (nous aimons aussi regarder les matches de football américain, et il y a typiquement les parades dans les villes)!

What do you think about Thanksgiving (Qu'en pensez-vous de Thanksgiving)? Do you have any questions? Comment below! See you around!

Hey guys!

I hope you had a nice long weekend, and had a good Armistice Day as well!

In the United States, we celebrate Armistice Day, but we call it Veterans Day (le jour des vétérans). I think it is a very important holiday, and we should be proud to celebrate it. It is very good to know the history of your country!

I'm sure that many of you know what this is:

It is the flag of your country! This is the French flag. The French flag has three colors: blue, white, and red.

The American flag (the flag of the United States of America) has the same colors as the French flag: red, white, and blue.

My flag has stars (des étoiles) and stripes (des rayures). There are fifty (50) stars and thirteen (13) stripes. Sometimes we call the flag "The Stars and Stripes," or even "Old Glory."

The stars represent the fifty states (des états) of the United States (that's a lot of states!). I live in Connecticut. That's only one state; there are forty-nine (49) more!

France has départements, which are similar to our states. Martinique is one département of France; there are ninety-six (96) in the metropole, and four (4) others outside the metropole. That's a lot of départements! Can you imagine if the French flag had one hundred and one (101) stripes instead of three? 

The thirteen stripes on the American flag represent the thirteen original colonies that won independence from Britain in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War! They were the first thirteen states of America! 

The highlighted states (des états ombrés) are the original thirteen states from 1776!

Next time you see me, remember to tell me how many states there are in the USA (there are 50!), and how many there were at the beginning of the USA's history (there were 13!)! 

Before you leave, be sure to check out my country's national anthem in the "Links" section!

See you around!