Free merry-go-round in Paris

Today was the final day of the free merry-go-round (called "un manège" in French) right next to the city hall of our district of Paris. My son and I had some bonding time there this morning. This was the third time that he's been there in 8 days. There weren't many kids this morning, so he went on it about 7-8 times straight, changing animals each time.

Kudos to the city of Paris for doing this for its children. Both our kids loved it, as did many others who we saw there. We even brought one of Joel's classmates there with us last Saturday. We benefit from our district of Paris' providing of free merry-go-rounds, a free health clinic, a subsidized preschool, and a local pool geared primarily for families.

Tomorrow our lives get back to normal schedule. After dropping off our son at school in the morning, I head of to our weekly church staff meeting. It will be exciting to see what events 2006 brings and how our church and the Church responds to them.

My wife's birthday is tomorrow. One early present for her was getting to see the new version of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," which is called "Narnia" in French. She went with our friend Marion, while I put the kids to bed and caught up on several family phone calls. One blessing of 2005 was discovering Skype, an Internet telephone system that has saved us a fortune.