So, what's new in 2010?

Well, not much actually. Things are so slow around here these days we're going to have to get out some old Christmas photos to illustrate this post! This chipper smiley face here, for instance, dates back to somewheres in late '09. Mom made it with kristollen, candied chestnuts and the dessert plates she bought in Tourraine with Isabelle last summer.

Happy new year, by the way. You might think we pirates are a bit late with our greetings but here in Paris, France (where we still live in the same old apartment as last year), we're allowed to say "Happy New Year!" till the 31st of January. So "Happy New Year, groupies!" Sorry we've kept you waiting. You've been hankering for some piratey news for way too long now, haven't you?

Well, the most important thing is probably that I, Malcolm that is, got some pretty cool new Pokemon cards for Christmas. You may admire them here :

I also got a new pair of dancing shoes which look rather rustic but which are more appropriate to the rainy climate of Alsace than my blue-green-green-blue suede sneakers.

Next most important pirate news : Henry got a new scooter! (And a lovely pair of black mittens that Omi sent back with Mom from a Kohl's shopping trip they went on together in November, remember? Hey, that rhyms! They didn't tell anybody this at the time but, Mom and Omi didn't do a whole lot of shopping that day. They found those mittens for Henry then...


...they kicked back on some home massage chairs for the rest of the afternoon! Mom loved it, but Omi thought it tickled a bit!)

So anyway, Henry got a new scooter...

which he's even willing to lend it to Stella who looks downright elegant on it, don't she now?

(That's her new Bob Marley scarf hanging around her neck and fluttering in the breeze behind her as she races elegantly along. Santa Claus gave it to Gilles - Papa's brother - who then gave it to Stella on the 24th of December.) But even if Stella's elegant, Henry's still best : "Look, Mom, no hands!"

Even Mom had a go...

...after a shaky start she became rather brazen :

"Look, son, one foot!"

"Look, son, one HAND, one foot!"
(We'll be kind enough not to show her falling off.)

But Henry remains the Queen of the trampoline!
"Look, Mom, sideways!"


...um, sorry, that would be more like the Seigneur of scooters!
(Seigneur is the cool French word for lord but it begins with an s so it goes better with scooter.)

So what else is new?

Well, we got a new shower curtain and, speaking of watery spaces, Le Fish's tank also got a few upgrades...

...it's hard to see here but that thing embedded in the pebbles at the bottom is in fact a sunken frigate...

... Le Fish also likes his new zen tower which has a hole in the back that he can hide in waiting stealthily to take a passing Beta Splendens unawares (where there's a hole, there's hope!)...

...and he enjoys his sitting gargoyle...you'll probably be needing a close up of that :

ZOOM!

So I guess there is more new stuff going on around here than I'd thought at first. Like, we invented a new game last night too. It's called "Stick'em up!"...

...No, no, not your hands! Your FEET!

Another name for this game is :

"How many belgian pirates can do handstands in the livingroom without knocking the lightbulb out of the light socket in the ceiling?"

Answer :

ONE,

... no, make that, TWO...

... no wait! Make that THREE!!!

It all started with a challenge, of course. All of us other pirates wanted to show that we too could hold the famed Black-Scorpio breakdancing position as well as Henry can.

Needless to say...


...we can't. (Even Papa tried but he said that 2010 would be the year of the divorce if Mom put the picture she got of him on the blog...) Finally, we decided just to do some of your more basic breakdance moves...



...then things got a little out of hand!

Yep, that sure beat doing homework. That's for sure!

Speaking of homework, Stella has homework once again! That's the real news. (For those of you who are not on Facebook that is and who don't live with her - um, that'd be you, I guess, Monique...) Yep, Stella finally got assigned to a school she thinks she'll actually go to. It's called Lycée Hélène Boucher. Here's a picture :

And here's a picture of the gal it's named for :

She was a pilote. Won the women's world record for speed on the 11th of August, 1934. She died in a plane crash just three months later... She sounds like a wild lady! Maybe Stella will feel at home in a school named for her. We hope so and remember, where's there's a hole there's hope!