Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Christmas Tree is Always Greener on the Other side...

Christmas is upon us again, my friends. I hope you've all pulled out your stockings, put up the Christmas lights without falling off the roof, and tried your hardest to avoid Santa's Naughty list (although for some of you, that might than others- no judgment here!). I for my part, have decorated the Christmas tree with Lisa and Cecile, tried to teach Spanish carols to the kids, and have strolled through Christmas Markets in Paris, Cannes, Monaco, Nice, and Aix-en-Provence.
Yet, the Christmas-y Feeling is just not as strong this year. I think it might have to do with my association of Christmas to the break I get from university to go home, or the bitterly cold December weather, or the Firefighter's Light display at Stanley Park (who are we kidding... we all go for the firefighters, nobody pays attention to the lights!).

Somehow, between my lugging around of my life from one continent to the other, traipsing from Northern to Southern France, and spending my first Christmas away from my family in 11 years, I think I've lost track of time and tradition. It's as if my life is suspended from all familiarity, and no holiday or special occasion has the same meaning, because it's not "real". To be honest, I'm starting to panic a little... if I feel this way about Christmas, what will happen for MY BIRTHDAY????!?!?! We all know how my whole social calendar and sense of well-being revolves around the 13th of February! What if I don't feel it to be as big of a deal as I do usually? For someone who usually likes to ignore birthdays, that would be fine; but I start counting down the days on January 1st! I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it...

Back to Christmas. I've had people asking me what traditional Christmas is like in France. Well, for one, I haven't noticed that general sense of merriment and festivity that I felt in Colombia and Canada. But maybe that's just the French conservatism coming into play. I know that for my family, we're having 2 dinners. The 24th is the "fancy" dinner, when there's less people. There will be 7 of us at Cecile's mom's house, and I've learned there's seafood, foie gras, and wine in the menu. The 25th, after opening presents in the AM, we'll be eating a more traditional meal with turkey and other goodness. I'm sure I'll have more details to tell you when it's actually happened.

Anyway, I just wanted also to send out a big Christmas hug to all of you. I hope that wherever you're spending it this year, you won't have as hard a time as I am in finding the Christmas spirit within you :) Joyeux Noel mes chers amis!

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