Joyeuses fêtes!

 A lot of my clothes smell like fireplace now. And I love it!

Hi, hope all of you had a very merry Christmas and have made some excellent plans for the new year! I just got back to Montpellier. We were out in the country (no internet access-say it ain't so!), just a big, happy full home. I felt welcomed like one of the family, and that really meant a lot. I could go on for a while writing about the time we spent together, but I'm a little short on time! My mother has arrived from Alabama and she's slumbering away on my bed. Tomorrow we depart bright and early - 7:30 am - for Barcelona, for our whirlwind Mediterranean cruise!! I don't think I'll actually believe it until I see the boat. But 12 days, me and Mom, sailing the seas...I'll have more on that when I return. We're hoping to go to Paris afterward, before she goes back to the US!

I'd like to get back to a little more about the holidays here in France. Different, of course; much simpler, but no less warm. It's the combination of all the little things that have made this Christmas extra special: learning that huitres are a holiday tradition along with foie gras and the chapon and buche de Noel, singing along with the guitar and violinists in the family, watching crazy French cult classic films that I don't quite understand, but laughing anyway, and leaving our shoes under the tree for Father Christmas. Then there was the hour-long walk after the Christmas meal to work off some of our guilt from all those chocolate truffles...sin in a box, really. It's quite shameful. The meals were long, joined by wine, champagne, and exploding party favor chocolates that came with little bits of wisdom on pieces of paper inside:

I've spanned my fair share of southern-ish France this holiday season, from Montpellier to Toulouse, to the small village of Lectoure and the even tinier village of Plieux, to somewhere in the hills between:

Out for a walk. Was joined by the family pup :)

Playing Santa at midnight, Christmas Eve: "whose shoes are these again?"

I've even gone to Lyon and seen the entire city lit up at night in a December tradition that goes way back...though not at all in a way I'd expected!

And, finally, I found myself on a horse bare back Christmas day. This is the face I made for the camera:

Uh...let's try that again.

Much better!

So, I need some rest before our big trip tomorrow. Wishing all of you out there the best, until next time!