Happy Birthday January!

There are a ton of my favorite people celebrating birthdays in January. I haven't made the post office deadline of 2 weeks ago to mail you all fun French cards, so I take this moment to wish you all a wonderful new year in your life. I hope you can look back on this past year with a feeling of accomplishment, joy, strength, and love. May the next year be all that and more for each of you.

Happy birthday to Jennie P, Emily C, Bridget H, Karla S, Jennifer O, Sara F, Bill D, Josh L, Mom, Will C, Simone H, and Dad!!

I wanted to give you a birthday cake, but




it's been hard to find a French birthday cake.



When you search for "birthday cake" on Google images you get a ton of options.

Have yourself a harvest cake!













For the sportslover:












You can even eat your own face!













So I thought I might be able to find a cake shop in Paris, but got this instead -- and I refuse to wish you this kind of cake.













Without spending too much time procrastinating or digging for real French cakes, I found this "French wedding cake" which reminds me of our Norwegian Kranzkuchen:





Which even came with its own Norwegian couple in the Google images section:






Now, I know I'm poking fun. There are amazing bakeries in France and incredible chefs/bakers and the best designers in the world so I _know_ that there are good birthday cakes out there. I just don't have the time to look hard right now, and kind of want to joke around. So, don't take offense, but this came up under "birthday cake french" and looks like it really means "I don't wish you well on your birthday, instead, maybe you should consider choking to death."














So, in the end I guess I'll wish you with a galette des rois, which is still being sold in the boulangeries but I think it's like blue-light special now since the day of celebration was January 6th. The US Embassy explains and offers a recipe which basically boils down to eat a stick of butter with an egg on top. (Although this English-translated French recipe is the real truth of the baking.) At our gallete des rois school party, determined to be the 'queen' of the party, I got a huge slice and almost passed out from an overdose of sugar. No, honest. My eyes started kind of spinning and I got such a head rush. If I'd had a bat and piñata I would have gone to town. Instead, I tempered it with a bit of white wine, remained calm, got crowned and gave our director my fève (strange collection).




Or, please choose from any of these lovely traditional French pasteries like the élair (which means lightning, too).





Just please try to have a better time celebrating your birthdays than this woman, listed as "Yummy parisian cake"


um, yeah....







If I missed your birthday, I sincerely apologize. Please send me your date and I promise to toast you with equally as much sugar and love as I did the other folks.