Well well well, after an unprecedented 6 weeks of fun, I finally realized it might be time to go home for awhile !! (but not for too long!!)
On my last days in town, I enjoyed some very exciting Christmas shopping at Galeries Lafayette & Au Printemps, where EVERYONE in Paris was tightly crowded outside & inside the stores, milling around the streets, coming & going with all their shopping bags. There were police directing both foot traffic & cars, scooters darting about, holiday puppet shows on the sidewalks, Christmas music & lights, crushes of people swarming back & forth across the street… ooh la laaa, quite an experience!! It even snowed for a few hours… big fluffy snowflakes, the likes of which I haven’t seen in years!
My last day there, Soenke flew to Paris from Frankfurt? Dresden? Hamburg? to take me to dinner, then assist me & my gigantic piles of luggage to successfully reach the airport the next day. It was all a lot of fun, with incessant teasing about how much stuff I had !! [By the way, I like having my own pilot... he is a man who knows how to get to where I am. Excellent!]
Coming back home was a lovely experience, since my parents were there to meet me at the airport, & my Mom had decorated my apartment for me with a little Christmas tree & various holiday accoutrements. We celebrated on Christmas Eve…it was the usual Crawford madhouse with my brother & his wife & their 3 darling boys. Sami, a Tunisian masters’ degree student (and Fulbright scholar) also joined us for the day. The weather was STUPENDOUS!… around 18C, which meant croquet in the backyard, & a big smile on my previously-frozen face !
On Christmas day, I met my folks down at our favorite beachside cafe for lunch, & enjoyed a few hours of warm California sunshine !
What is next for Jennifer????? Well, 3 days of furious year-end tax planning… then on Wednesday the 29th, Soenke lands at LAX for a week here in California! On the 5th or so, we head off to Hamburg (BE READY, SALLY!!!), then back to Paris for more fun & “business meetings” with our friends there!!
Christmas lights of Galeries Lafayette:
Soenke flying back to Paris (I couldn’t resist….)
Me & my luggage, at Charles de Gaulle!
Christmas Eve on the back porch:
Prime rib for dinner:
Sami with 2 of my nephews:
Gina (ma belle soeur) & Chase in his new beret!:
Mom’s version of the sparkling Tour Eiffel !!!
Christmas Day, lunch in Laguna Beach!
I’m ready! Any ideas of what you would like to do or see here? What has Sönke suggested? Can’t wait to see you again.
Hey girl! I have no idea what is in Hamburg (now that I know that it is not the birthplace of the Hamburger, I am a little deflated..)… but Soenke has suggested some fun things, which I cannot now remember (they were big German words).
You must tell me what you want me to bring… perhaps some proper superpower toothpaste ??! I am now hooked on this Elmex German toothpaste, if you can believe!
P.S. I wrote too soon, Sally! Just went to your blog & saw the excellent detailed list of superpower stuff you are missing
…. am making notes!
Merry Christmas (late!), we had that big storm here in lovely Ohio, so my internet was down for about three days. I had power, though, so I consider myself lucky!!!
Side note : Might I get a copy of Sami’s Fulbright application? I’m applying myself next year, and I try to absorb all the successful applications I can – not to COPY, just to get a better idea of what they’re looking for.
And that Soenke…woo-ee! Not everyone has a lovely bit like that FLYING to meet them. You tricky girl, you!
Umm.. it’s just as well Soenke was there to help you with your bags..!! Exactly HOW much shopping did you do??!!!
JOY!
That’s EXACTLY how I remember the sparkling Eiffel Tower! Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!
Lin
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