I have no idea how I managed to find myself in the middle of December with hardly any Christmas shopping done (this is my very unsubtle way of telling people far away that their presents will be arriving late. ahem). I'm very slowly and surely descending into a state of complete and utter panic. What the heck am I supposed to get my 2 1/2 year old niece? That doesn't involve cheap plastic crap and the exploitation of underpriveledged countries in the manufacturing process? Ahem.
The year seems to have flown by so quickly that I have a hard time realising that Christmas is only two weeks away, and although I feel like the extreme stress I was under at the start of the year and my sisters wedding in July was just a few weeks ago, I also can't shake the feeling that it was a lifetime ago. I just hope I can figure it all out sooner rather than later, because I'm already starting to have to write 2008 on things at work and I still feel like I should be writing 2006.
The weather has gotten progressively colder, and this morning I wore a scarf, a coat and gloves to work, which is saying a lot for me - I enjoy cold weather and love having the sensation of frosty wind caressing my neck, but when it's 0°C outside, even I need to cover up a little. This morning the quay at my train station had been salted, which is basically a sure-fire way of guaranteeing that there will be no snow (if you don't put salt down, it will snow, but if you do, it won't), but I keep my hopes up, anyway.
Every time I see snow I get as hyper as a little kid, and just seeing the salt on the quay this morning made me squeal in anticipation. Out loud. A lady in front of me on the steps turned around and stared at me. I pretended to tie up my shoelace instead of staring back.
My in-laws live in a region which is susceptible to snow and usually experiences heavy snowfalls all throughout January and February. I'm still having a hard time being so far away from Australia at the moment, but if we have to miss out on spending Christmas with my family this year, at least I can hope for a white Christmas.
But even if we don't get snow, at least one thing is guaranteed. There will be Sauternes. And the foie gras. Can't forget the foie gras. Oh, and the bûche de noël. Ooooh, the bûche.
Christmas in France isn't so bad, after all.
Oh, and can you believe we hit 100? And more? We're podcasting up a storm!
All of my Christmas shopping has to be mailed so I have decided to use Amazon and Target gift cards that I can do on the internet. It sure simplified my life and save me some money from postage overseas. Hard to beat foie gras!
All of my Christmas shopping has to be mailed so I have decided to use Amazon and Target gift cards that I can do on the internet. It sure simplified my life and save me some money from postage overseas. Hard to beat foie gras!
Congrats on hitting 100, Katia! (congrats to Kyliemac too, bien sûr!) I've got a lot of catching up to do, I know... I need to download a bunch of recent episodes to my iPod so I can take them on the plane with me back to the U.S. over New Year's -- that will have me laughing out loud and making my neighbors wonder what the heck I'm listening to! (that's what happened last summer when I listened to you guys on the TGV to Nantes)
Would be cool to see a little snow too -- we may catch a bit over Christmas when we head down to Besançon, but we're going to be popping in and out very quickly... I also ADORE foie gras, it's one of my absolute favorite things!