Merry Christmas 2009!

Our 2009...

Here's what happened...

New Years' Eve movie with the Stites. Williams visit Atlanta. Matt’s wedding in Nashville.

Winter break trip to SXM.

Northlake ladies’ retreat. Liz goes to NY with the Juniors. Girls’ lakehouse weekend. Spring break GACS trip to Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

Bryan’s wedding in Winston-Salem. Doug leads worship for the Northlake youth group. Race for the Cure in Atlanta. Byron’s wedding in Winston-Salem. Muddy Buddy race in Nashville. Visit to TX. Daniel’s wedding in OK.

Anna Rose visits ATL. Ric visits ATL. Visit to the World of Coke.

Doug teaches at Northlake. Going away party at the Prewitts. 4^th of July at the Stites Farm.

Rafting trip on the Ocoee. 2^nd Anniversary dinner at the Mad Platter.

Bastille Day party. Beat the Heat 5K in Winston. 6^th week CBC.

Kassie’s wedding in VA.

Putnam County Fair and acquisition of Gustave the goldfish.

Ric visits Nashville. Pizza party. Liz’s birthday dinner.

Move to Lyon. Hiking trip in Switzerland.

Potluck at the Hendrixes. English assistant picnic in the park. Williams come to Lyon with trips to Paris-Bayeux-Colleville sur Mer-Caen-Perouges.

Weekend in Paris with Bobby and Bonnie.

English assistant Thanksgiving feast. Emily and Grant visit Lyon. Fete des Lumieres. English assistant Christmas party. Church with Pamela in Geneva. Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb of God at the Ryman. Jessi’s wedding.

Friends night at Local Taco and Sweet CeCes. Lunch at Baja with the Steidls.

Off to Alsace for New Years!

What an adventure of a year we have had!

Please keep us in your prayers and we head into 2010.

Joyeux Noel et Bonne Année

Douglas and Elizabeth Williams

160, rue Cuvier

69006 LYON

FRANCE

dougkwill@gmail.com

lizkwill@gmail.com

and check back often at

http://dougliz.blogspot.com

Jessi's wedding weekend

Jessi got married yesterday... and even got her snowflakes!

bridesmaid luncheon on Friday...

at the Rehearsal Dinner...

Wedding day brunch that I made...

Pictures before the ceremony...

At the reception...

Here are more pictures from the weekend.

Jessi's wedding weekend

Welcome home

Well after 3 flights we arrived last night in Nashville... and first stop was Baja Burrito. Today we had lunch at Five Guys, which was another item to check off of Doug's list. And... Doug got a haircut!!! YAY!

singing, snow, and raclette!

Yesterday we went to the Christmas market in Croix Rousse. The market itself wasn't that great, but there was a "Christmas Farm" which was... interesting. Too bad it wasn't set up when Emily was here a few weeks ago... she would have loved it.

Today we went to Geneva with Pamela. The church there is about 100 people, with people from all over the world. The singing was great! It began snowing on our way, and when we got out of church it was so pretty to see everything dusted with a little snow. We had lunch at Doyle and Barbara Kee's house. We had raclette for the first time!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Last night 2 assistants hosted a Christmas party at their apartment complete with a game of Dirty Santa. There were SO many people there- many I had never seen before... and not just British and American assistants, but also German and Spanish assistants... and a few French people, too!

the dessert spread

new friends

dirty Santa

Jasmine opens Doug's gift (random stuff from our apartment)

Ryan with my gift (sleep masks from the airplane)

Tonight we are hosting a Christmas cookie swap... yum!

Une explosion?!

Last night about 10PM a man was knocking on our door. It was a neighbor and was spreading the word that there had been "une explosion" in the mail boxes. Doug went downstairs to check it out, and he found that our neighbor had been exaggerating a little bit. But there were several mailboxes (including ours) with the door ripped off and then stuffed back into the box.

(our mailbox door)

(our poor doorless mailbox)

Why? Je ne sais pas. I guess the same reason that American teens get a kick out of knocking over mailboxes with baseball bats. Fortunately, our "once a week roomate" was there last night, so she called her mom (our landlady), and she is going to call the building maintenance today. Hopefully it will be fixed soon!!

Fetes des Lumieres!

Every year millions of people flock to Lyon for the famous Fete des Lumieres (festival of lights).

The tradition is that in the 1600s, the whole area was ravaged by plague, and in 1832 there was a cholera break-out, but both times, Lyon was spared, thanks to Mary's protection (don't ask me why credit was given to Mary and not to God...). So, to thank Mary, it was decided that when the new cathedral was constructed on Fouvriere Hill, there would be a statue to honor her. When the statue was unveiled, there was a terrible storm, but the people of Lyon showed up anyway with lanterns to thank Mary. The city put candles in their windows to show their support.

Although people still put candles in their windows, and there are posters everywhere saying "Merci Marie," the celebration has evolved into a huge light production throughout the city. The actual celebration is on December 8th, but the "lights" were going on since Saturday. There were SO many people, but it was worth fighting the crowd to see what we got to see!

Saturday night we saw:

-Place Saint Jean (our favorite!)

-Place Bellecour

-Place des Jacobins

-Saint Nizier

-Place Louis Pradel

-Place Marechal Lyautey

-Parc de la Tete d'Or

Sunday night we saw:

-Place des Terraux... 2nd favorite

here's a short video from Place des Terreaux also:

-Theatre Celestins

-fireworks on Fouvriere Hill (notice the outline of the basilica behind the fireworks)

-Fouvriere Hill (the path up to the basilica and the "Digital Man" on the Metal Tower)

-Gadagne musuem (which was the biggest let-down... didn't even take a picture)

-Gare Saint Paul (also a let-down... the windows just changed colors)

Monday night I got home late, so I just saw:

-La Tour Oxygene

and non-fete-des-lumieres, but... the Christmas decor at Part Dieu

And last night, we saw:

-the very end of the fireworks over the Rhone

-the outside of Hotel Dieu (the line was too long to go in the courtyard)

-the Prefecture (probably the most confusing)

Click here for all the pictures:

fete des lumieres

There was still so much that we didn't get to see... peut-etre l'année prochaine??