Leg 1: Waynesboro. December 21-25
After a very relaxing flight on AirFrance, we landed in DC. We got "secondaried" in customs for having too much wine, even though I brought back more wine all by myself last year, declared it, and no one said anything about it. It was a bit obnoxious, especially the officer's "I'm going to give you a warning this time" comment, but they didn't end up making us pay any tax on it soooo... WIN. Jackie and Jeremy hauled us back to PA and we had a lovely dinner with all Jason's family. Even Pat and Soraya came up to see us!
The next couple days were a blur of presents and parties. Not sure if the blurriness was caused by the jet lag or Jay's sazeracs or perhaps it's just the inherent madness that comes along with spending the holidays with your family. This year was my first at the infamous Dave and Dee Christmas Eve Bonanza and we all made it out alive. I managed to not get shitfaced by posting up at the mic: they have a whole sound system set up in their bar and we all took turns jamming out. I stuck mostly to Christmas carols (which I had admittedly practiced in the weeks leading up to the holidays in a last-ditch effort to make Jay stop outwardly hating me) and they were well received. Nothing like a little "We Three Kings" to get you in the mood for Jesus's birthday.
Christmas Day was really lovely, minus the epic guilt that of feeling like I didn't get people enough presents or the right presents or not thoughtful enough presents. Jay and Jason are just really good at gift giving and it makes all the rest of us look bad. I guess I just need more practice. Anyway, highlights included a slab of wild boar meat for Jason and tons of books in paperback and on Kindle for me!
Leg 2: Rochester. December 26-30
We borrowed the Green Lantern to make the drive up to Rochester and it wouldn't be my birthday without a little snow storm, but we made it in one piece. We had a busy itinerary, as always: we booked ArtisanWORKS for our wedding (September 19, 2015!!), my mom and I got facials together and we managed to convince enough of my friends and family members to meet up for not one but two post-Christmas gatherings! Stone's with the Stiches and Craig and Anne's with the Reeds. If you play the "We're only in town once a year" card, most people will cave pretty quickly. There was a bit more driving around town than I would have liked but that's what you have to do when you aren't home for the actual holidays. These are the sacrifices we must make!
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| Irene's granddaughters |
Leg 3: Baltimore. December 31-January 2
As much as I like hanging out with my family, especially as we all get older and cooler, I love New Year's Eve with friends. We made our way down to Baltimore and crashed Paul and Ama's party. It was a good old time, with lots of champagne and cocktails and general merriment. Some of us *cough*Jason*cough* may have been a bit too merry and were not quite well on New Year's Day, but I went out to lunch with Otis and Farris and even James and little Alyssa came, too! She's our first baby so it's hard not to be at least a little excited about her. Even Farris held her, which is saying something. Still not trying to have any of my own anytime soon but I will take that spiky-haired child off their hands whenever they need. Campbell was dearly missed.
We stopped in to see Paul's new school, which is amazing, and then had coffee at Natalia's place. I have a bit of a life crush on that woman. If I could accomplish half the things that she has, I will have truly done something. She's outrageous.
Homestretch: Waynesboro-DC-Paris. January 2-4
We had to drop the car back in Waynesboro before flying back to France but the polar vortex had other plans for us. The drive to PA was rough because we left Natalia's a little later than we should have and the combination of snow plus rush hour traffic was disastrous. We didn't die, but it did take us three hours longer than it should have taken to get there. We woke up on Friday morning to get on the road to the airport only to find out that our flight had been delayed by six hours. A blessing in disguise, certainly, as we got to spend another day with the Bayers and we would be getting into Paris at a more reasonable hour (8am is just too early to do anything, especially after an international flight with two week's worth of luggage) but driving an hour and a half back from the airport 1am is just not that much fun.
We landed in Paris at about 4pm local time and hopped on the RER into the city. We had some more delays because of some accident downtown but eventually we made it to our hotel. We chatted with the guy at the desk, explained to him that we just arrived from the US and on our way back down to Bordeaux where we live now, and he thought we were so charming that he upgraded our room and got us an amazing discount at this excellent restaurant for dinner. Epic win!
We didn't have much time to do anything other than dinner when we got in on Saturday but we did manage to swing by the Eiffel Tower, which is simply stunning at night. We spent all day Sunday wandering around the city, checking out all the stuff one should see when spending a day in Paris. There is obviously much more to see but I'm sure we'll be back, especially since everyone was so nice! Paris, you're alright with me.
Finish line: January 5. Paris-Bordeaux
After our day in Paris, we took the train from Montparnasse to Bordeaux, first class! I slept most of the trip and slept some more as soon as we got home. It was a crazy couple of weeks but pretty damn wonderful every step of the way. We did have to take Monday off to recover from our vacation, though. What do you say to Christmas in Europe next year, folks?
