It SNOWED !! A rare event – it happened early in the month and only for an afternoon but it was such a treat for us. Like most people, we are always a bit shocked when we realize the year is coming to an end.
This was not a month to travel for us but it was one to bake, decorate and celebrate the holidays. We played Christmas music while we hung the tree with lights, ornaments, greenery, stars and gingerbread people. The last touch was the popcorn, which I think really makes the tree shine. But we had to explain that idea to more than one French person who visited the apartment.
Because I always want to make sure that there is a cookie for everyone’s tastes, I make a good variety, just as my mother did. This year I made six different types; a pecan puff, a hazelnut square, and almond toffee, a coffee cookie, a sugar cookie and gingerbread people. The task was made easier by breaking down the process. Four batches of dough for each were created, then refrigerated and lastly baked in manageable amounts. Boxed and delivered to friends, neighbors and shop keepers – accomplished within ten days. We were feeling quite virtuous!
To make us pay for our swell heads, the clothes washer/dryer decided to humble us by finally breaking down. It was spirited away to a repair shop before they promised its return within two week’s time. Admittedly, it felt much longer and I thought any longer would kill me. It is firmly on my basic need list now. Handwashing clothes or shlepping laundry to a laundromat are things I’d really like to avoid in the future. Also, our newly acquired Roborock that vacuums and mops our apartment floors experienced some issues this month and unfortunately, G had to return it for a new one to be delivered. We’re still waiting on the new one and G has been missing it greatly. I have to say it does do wonders.
Since we weren’t traveling this year, along with the cookie deliveries, we issued invitations to our first ever real-to-goodness party. We invited EVERYONE we knew. Sounds amazing until you find out that the head count was all of 22 people. Yep, we’re party animals, we are. So as a result, as soon as the baking and delivering was done, we were planning the finger food party and libations. We have no pictures of the party and our friends since G & I were enjoying our guests and forgot. Besides, I thought it might be tacky.
The trick was to have warm and cold items, making sure nothing was too messy to handle. Italian meatballs, parmesan puffs and chicken cabbage dumplings were on the hotplate. Deviled eggs, ham/herb cheese roll ups, quiche, mozzarella balls/cherry tomato halves with basil leaves and potato fingerlings hollowed out with blue cheese stuffing were the room temperature items. We made eggnog with rum, had a grapefruit rosemary tonic to go with gin and vodka, a couple of whiskeys, seltzer and of course, coffee finished up the offerings.
To avoid any food allergy issues, I made a menu sign and as it was self serve, I added an odd assortment of signs elsewhere to help out anyone who might need it. I even made a sign to explain the big hole left by the absent washer, which they found a bit amusing. Everyone spoke French as well as English and the age range was from 21 to 85. For as diverse as the group was, everyone mingled and conversed well, with most of the food, definitely all of the gin, all of the beer, several bottles of wine and a bottle of whiskey gone when the party broke up well past midnight. I even got a marriage proposal for the meatballs but, well not only for G’s sake, I politely declined. We considered it a success. Then we spent the next two days recuperating. If we be party animals – truth be told, we’re aged party animals.
Our two American friends, C & B, whom we had enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with, had just returned from a trip to the Netherlands. They tested positive for Covid within a few days of their return and were not able to come to our soiree. Due to the quarantine period, we all had to forgo our dinner reservations on Christmas eve and we had to send our holiday wishes from a distance. We made ourselves a T-bone steak dinner with mashed potatoes, white asparagus and brussel sprouts. Perfect!
After the party, our month was clear. We spent it enjoying the Lille Christmas market, the bands which played on the Opera House steps and catching up with US family/friends on FaceTime. Then I also took care of something I’ve wanted for some years. Not on my basic need list but on my personal check list. I got my one and only tattoo. I followed my dad’s advice; 1) Do it while sober; 2) Make it something that is significant to you; and 3) Design it yourself. I took a Celtic rune called ‘Raido’ (pronounced ‘Rye-dough’) which has many meanings but mainly “Journey” which reflects my life. I turned the simple lines of the rune into a pole draped with a ribbon as I have done the same to all of the rune symbols in my art. The tattoo artist spoke with me beforehand regarding the color and she did a fabulous job copying my watercolor. The process was easier than I imagined and I had no problems with it after the work. My niece and nephew, along with his partner have decided to join me and get the same tattoo (in their own towns), which made it all more special to me. That taken care of, I’m getting ready for 70 !!
On Christmas eve we went out, stopping for a wonderful pork & veal sausage roll at the market for lunch – meeting up with our two American friends who had recovered and enjoying the mild weather. It was in the low 50’s and sunny. One could not ask for more.
Christmas day was a nice, quiet, and relaxing day spent opening stockings, exchanging gifts and talking to relatives and friends in the states. Our Christmas gift to ourselves (as a reward since we were not traveling this spring) was a nice set of Wusthof knives, replacing our five year old, very cheap and much bent supermarket knives. It’s utterly heaven to be able to slice something instead of hacking away at it, like using a pen knife on a wood log.
The day after Christmas, G came down with the flu. We’d managed to get over our colds from the October trip and hoped that it had been all we would deal with. As bad as he felt, with chills and fever, he fortunately tested negative for Covid.
But unfortunately we needed to beg off a lovely dinner invitation from Sophie and Frederick, which included a trip to the lovely Vinage farm. Run for 10 generations, this family produces it’s own variety of goods but most spectacularly more than 70 different cheeses. https://www.fermeduvinage.fr/apropos
As G’s bout of flu came to an end, it turned into a cold. The returned washer decided it was not done misbehaving, but hasn’t (yet) required another call to the company. Seems that we were to end the year limping a little. Rather to get it done now and start a new year fresh. However, no sooner had I finished writing this, G was taking out our recycle when he got stuck in our elevator. He sat on the bags of recycle, reading the news on his mobile while I called the emergency elevator repair number that we keep next to our front door. Seemed a prudent idea at the time and so glad we did. Of course when I called, I got a recording in French that was too fast for me to understand. Audrey, our upstairs neighbor was quick to jump in and finish the call for me. Forty minutes later G was released by a repair man, who deeply appreciated a reward from me, of a bottle of Scotch. G having gained his freedom, stopped at the corner store for beer and the Christmas market for their delicious sausage sandwiches. We delivered one of each to Audrey (who also had a cold) as a thank you for her participation in the ‘Emancipation of G’ as I like to call it.
Yes, those are photos of inside the elevator that G took when he was bored and was sure you would be interested it. Just for good measure he wanted to throw in a fun Lille picture of a mural on someone’s outside apartment wall. After all, he is the photographer – he gets to have a vote.
Here’s to a good send off to 2023 and a Happy New Year to all !!
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