Merry Christmas...I Guess.

I have something to say that I never thought would be uttered in my adult life: for the first time ever, I shall be spending Christmas alone.

No family. No friends. Not even the slightest vision of sugar plum fairies dancing in my head.

Everyone that I know in France will literally be out of town on the 25th, and my dear mother remains sequestered in 80 degree weather back in Miami.

I don't quite know how to react about potentially feeling lonely on Christmas day, but I have several tasks to keep me busy.

1) Decorating the Christmas tree* with presents*.

*Actual Christmas tree and presents optional.

2) Relocating the mini poinsettia into a bigger pot.

I haven't neglected it. I tend to it every day and check to see if its soil runs dry. However, it's inexplicably dying and I've had the poor thing for only a week. I'm a horrible plant mother and therefore cannot be trusted with other plant offspring lest I want to have plant services called on me.

This is what a plant looks like when it has given up. 

3) Thoroughly cleaning and tidying my room.

I'm also a horrible room mother. Even I'm ashamed as to how much of a slob I can be.

4) Drinkin' booze.

There was a point in my young adult life in which I would drink orange juice only if it had rum in it. This week taught me that not much has changed since then.

Also: there is no more space in the booze compartment of the infamous bookcase/booze cabinet. I gotta be cold-hearted and evict some residents.

5) Pack my suitcase.

I'm headed to the Netherlands on December 26th and will celebrate New Year's Day in Amsterdam. No time to mope around the house this Christmas.

And, inevitably: 6) Light some candles and pray to the French strike gods that the SNCF and Air France don't decide to ruin my trip.

French Christmas cheer just wouldn't be the same without peppering a vacation with train delays and canceled flights.

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Since I will not be in the country prior to the end of the year, let this message serve as my well wishes to all of you lovely readers.

I'm going to forgo the annual "Re-Cap of Barb's Year" to just a few notable highlights: decided to go to Ireland, went to Ireland, met an Irishman at the airport in Paris, kept in contact with the Irishman, spent time with the Irishman in Paris, had heart broken by the Irishman, celebrated 26th birthday, went to London with 19 French middle school students, went to a Franco-American wedding in Burgundy, went home for the summer, was a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding, went to visit Coffee Bean in Orlando and took a trip together to Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, went back to France, went to Ireland a second time.

I'd say that this Karate Chop Ninja Squirrel year featured more ups than downs overall. Let's see if 2014 turns out to be surreptitious and unexpectedly life-changing, like Ninja Squirrel in the dark.

Je vous souhaite un Joyeux Noël et une très Bonne Année/Les deseo una Feliz Navidad y un Prospero Año Nuevo/I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Barb the French Bean