Christmas

Update: Click on the image above to link to David's Flickr set of all the Christmas pics.

We’re just settling back to our pre-visitor routine after about 10 days of various guests and an assortment of maladies. In the days leading up to Christmas, we were treated to many delicious dinners courtesy of Tasia’s friend David (from now on referred to as David A. to avoid confusion with my David). Our consumption of the trifecta of fat (croissants, fromage, and cookies) hit an all time high (really, I didn’t even know it could get any higher!), and we managed a few outings, including two that were child-free.

The pre-Christmas highlight for me was definitely getting a few girl-hours to shop for dresses in town with Tasia. She found 3 that are true Tas (short, tight, flirty as hell), and I found one that I love, love, love (not quite so short, but the other adjectives certainly apply :-).

Christmas Eve day Anna made cookies for Santa, which she later put out with vin chaud (what, you expected milk? Americans!). Going to sleep that night she kept saying “I’m so excited,” and it was just so sweet. (Side note: a few days before Christmas we saw “Santa” riding in a horse-drawn carriage around Rouen. Anna and I chased the carriage for a block or so with Anna beaming and yelling “I’m so happy!!!” the whole time. It was definitely one of my favorite moments of this trip.)

Christmas itself was lovely, filled with the enthusiasm that only a 3-year-old can manage, as well a champagne (the real kind), and the usual goodies. We had agreed to limit gift-giving to stocking stuffers, the sillier the better. There were a few exceptions, most notably the gorgeous necklace David bought me. I had spotted it one day racing through Printemps (sort of the French Macy’s) in search of gloves (I managed to lose one each of mine and Anna’s in the first week here). He remembered and has now created a big problem, as there are 4 showrooms for the jewelry line in Paris!

Christmas dinner was the brunch we never got around to earlier, followed by the first 3 episodes of Season 1 of Californication and the finalé of season 4 of Weeds (perhaps not the expected choice for Christmas—unless you know the crowd that was present!). This is actually one of the interesting things about this trip—the dichotomy between the very old architecture, roads, etc., and the technology we have access to. Because we brought a laptop and WiFi base station, we have access to the world. Pair that with the big screen and video projector in the house and we can download and watch most anything we want. The most surreal example of this has been sitting in this funky, old, French house projecting Barack Obama in HD and larger than life onto the screen to watch his podcasts. Surreal because of what I mentioned above, but also because we are so hopeful and encouraged by who he is and what he has to say. And we just can’t believe that this man is our President, that for the first time in 8 years, we are willing to call someone our President. (Sorry for the political tangent!)

As much as we loved having our friends here to help us celebrate, I am enjoying the quiet (ok, relative quiet) that comes from just being our little family. We have time for a few more adventures and then it’ll be time to head home. Nine more days left—hard to believe.

Let's get this party started

Today was the first time since Tasia arrived (3 days ago) that she’s been well enough to leave the house. We had arranged for Maïte (the neighbor’s daughter) to come over for a few hours so we could go exploring. Tasia’s friend, David, is also here visiting (he has other friends in France) and it was Dana’s last day so we really wanted to get to have an outing all together.

Since Tas is still quite sick, we drove downtown and then meandered around, starting at the Vielle Marché, near Place Jeanne d’Arc. Tasia and David were just transfixed looking at all the different vendors with their seafood, meats, candied fruits, even one just for butter. (The butter here is seriously to die for. We’ve had many conversations about how to smuggle butter back to Portland!) After a little while Tasia needed some food (and the rest of us are all pigs and quite happy to stop for food anytime), so we went into Printemps for a light lunch. The French really have the food thing down. We had a bottle of cider for the table (minus Tasia, of course) and everyone got little open-faced sandwiches on thin-sliced, toasted bread. Mine was roasted aubergines (eggplant) with tomates and fromage. Trés delicieux.

After lunch we walked around some more, spending an inordinate amount of time in chocolatèries. I also bought yet more xmas gifts for Anna. (I just can’t resist art supplies. Total projection! Thank god she’s finally starting to get into crafts.) Sometimes I feel like I am single-handedly (single cardedly?) keeping the economy from total collapse!

After a few hours Tasia had had all she could handle and we came back home. The two Davids went in search of fixings for latkes for dinner tonight (did you know it’s the first night of channukah?); Tasia, Anna, and Dana napped (separately); and I got in an hour of work on the annual report.

With the exception of an ugly, lingering cough, I seem to have gotten over all the mishaps of the previous few days (thanks to all who sent well wishes!) and I’m encouraged that Tasia was able to get out today. And now it’s time to get this party started. This is what I envisioned when I was back in Portland imagining our time here.

Happy Channukah everyone!

Bumps along the way

It's been a somewhat rough day or two. For me, it started with the beginnings of a cold which has morphed into a pretty nasty cough. Then, yesterday, I did what David and I have been fearing since we got here. I fell down our steep, narrow, twisty, dark stairs while carrying Anna. Thankfully I didn't have far to go and I was able to keep my wits about me enough to protect Anna's head. My body took it a little harder. I bashed the side of my face into a wall and banged-up both my legs. Fortunately the only lasting impact a day later is that my left ankle/foot is a bit torqued. I am very grateful that I can walk today and that Anna's just fine.

And Tasia, my girlfriend extraordinaire from Portland, arrived yesterday sporting a pretty nasty deep tissue infection. She's been sick for a week or so, and we really didn't think she'd be able to make it here, but that's Tasia. She decided she'd rather be sick in France than in Portland and somehow made it through a full 24 hours of travel alone, puking her guts out along the way. She's on heavy-duty antibiotics which are making her feel terrible. Hopefully she be feeling better in a few days. We had such grand plans for our time together in France!

And, alas, today is my love David's 40th birthday. The motley crew he's surrounded by today doesn't exactly make for an exciting soirée tonight. I am planning to make crèpes, and we picked up a nice bottle of Burgundy and some amazing looking treats from the chocolatèrie. Hopefully we can all rally to give him a proper fête.

Happy birthday, Love. Je t'aime.

Bet you thought we were in the air

Yes, well...we're not. We should be, but are instead at home waiting for tomorrow to come. We got to the airport only to find the Lufthansa counter closed. Apparently they have decided not to fly on Sundays (at least from Portland) anymore, but no one told us. If you know me at all well, then you can imagine my reaction upon arriving with my family and all of our crap, only to be told to come back tomorrow. It wasn't pretty. But David and Tasia came to the rescue (David took care of Anna, Tasia took care of me!). And so now we're home, living out of our suitcases and waiting for tomorrow to be today, except with a flight that actually leaves for France. I've decided to be very Jewish about this and assume that this was the bad thing that had to happen in order to have an otherwise perfect trip. Sort of like breaking the glass before marriage. Ok, glass broken. Rock on.