Happy holidays!

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and what a wondrous holiday it was. The turkey arrived just in time and I dined in Chambéry meets America style. It started snowing during the feast though, which was not exactly what I bargained for. I've had to make some wardrobe adjustments since being here to be able to walk through slush and snow without getting frostbite on my poor little helpless toes. Plus part of the remaining pumpkin pie in the box I was carrying did not fair well in the wet, slushy, cold, unwelcome rain/snow/hail/slush/ice-water.

Now the pumpkin pie is all gone and has taken with it the remaining feel of Thanksgiving and fall. Now it's time for Christmas and winter. I have already started the month long process of making paper snowflakes, decorating baby trees, coloring Christmas trees, drinking Christmas tea, and watching Christmas movies. I think my favorite holiday movie is The Family Stone and I've already watched it once. I'm sure I'll watch it many more times before it's even Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas - I've started arranging my holiday plans and I couldn't be happier about them. Gunther is flying to France and we're going to Colmar (a town which I will tell you more about once I've actually been there) and possibly taking a day trip to Strasbourg. After that we/I am/are heading south to spend a good portion of break with Mélodie and I'm so excited about that. She's incredibly gracious and kind to let us spend the holidays with her and I'm lucky to have made friends that can house my homeless student butt over the holidays.

I'm also working on maybe a trip to Rome. This one is less confirmed, more just an ambitious fantasy of mine. I already know when the flight out is and where I would stay if it happens. I've done my research. Because I've been so excited about all this I've started a Europe bucket list for my remaining time here. What if I never get to come back to France? I want to make the absolute most of the time that I have here and see all the things that I really want to see, just in case.

On a related holiday note - I'm not dealing too well with the fact that my friends are leaving me. They aren't just leaving for break though, their leaving for good. I don't know who I'm going to come home and ramble in English to, who I'm going to to shopping with, or who I'm going to have lazy weekends with. I'm sad about it, but note that the France postal service will be getting a lot of business from me because I'll be sending them a million things.

Holidays - sad, right. I'm sad because there are things I miss from home. Little things. I kind of miss Christmas shopping for people. I miss walking downtown during Christmas time, the smell of chex mix in my kitchen, and putting up the tree. BUT walking around Chambéry (and eventually Colmar) during Christmas is going to almost trump walking around downtown Knoxville. It's going to be worth a holiday away from home.

PS - I'm going skiing/snowboarding this weekend and just you all wait until you see my ski pants. They will blow your minds.