Stories Collected While Living in France
The Christmas decorations are up.
The music is playing.
Friends invited.
Menu planned.
Truffle scenting the eggs.
Gifts wrapped.
The feeling of Christmas swelling in my heart with thoughts of Chelsea, Sacha, and my family…
Santons standing around the creche.
….. snow predicted.
Christmas time is coming!
What are your last minute plans?
Happy Christmas TICA! Thanks for all the wonderful reads through the year.
No plans this year. The eve dinner will be just for the three of us, maybe on Christmas lunch my mother will join us (if not invited by her brother)so no big deal……Christmas is not anymore the one it used to be………
My son, who said “I don’t need anything, I can’t think of anything…” on his Christmas list, told me he wishes he had a watch! 2 days to go…and I have to watch shop…in the crowds…for a “deal”…ho, ho, ho…
In truth, I am excited! I am looking forward to seeing his face when he opens his watch.
jackie
bliss farm antiques
Merry Christmas my lovely friend
God bless you and yours real good at Christmas and always
Love Jeanne
Sounds like a wonderful Christmas, enjoy yourselves. Just some tidying for me.
No last minute plans yet, but one cancellation for tonight’s dinner party.
Your plans sound lovely Corey and from the sounds of your post I’ll bet your house is beautiful.
Adding my thanks too for all the wonderful postings to your blog in 2010.
we just finished renovating and have moved to the new apartment two days ago, so I work 12-hour shift to sort thing out … taking a break at the moment to have some herb tea and read your blog and then back to work till I drop. our Christmas tree has not been decorated yet but there is still on more day tomorrow to do it, besides my tree will be standing till Russian Christmas which is on January 7th or maybe I’ll keep it till January 14th – New Year day by the old calendar.
have a wonderful holiday, Corey!
Cleaning the bathrooms while waiting for my babes to arrive!
All the family around the dinner table tonight. The best gift.
Merry Christmas, Corey, from snowy New Hampshire.
Merry Christmas to you and your family dear friend! Hope you have a Happy New Year! I believe that 2011 is gonna be a great one! Hope to see you soon!
Theresa
aka:tot
Christmas is a quiet time at our home…no little ones; no grandchildren. No real excitement on Christmas morning, but still a time when we reflect on the past and look forward to the future. Midnight Mass (not at midnight…can’t figure that out!) always reminds me of my lovely father-in-law and the time he and I went to mass together. I smile as I recall his booming and proud voice as he sang. Last minute activities? Hoping that orders will arrive today and tomorrow so I can wrap them ;-).
Have a lovely holiday with your family and give Annie a hug from all of us who adore her wisdom!
Plans over the next 36 hours: make orange marmalade, spiced pecans, cheese biscuits, gingerbread men and shrimp dip! Accompanied, depending on the hour, by espresso, prosecco or tea and plenty of holiday music! Plus wrap presents, pack and drive to Charlotte, NC.
We are heading to Reno to be with our daughter and her boyfriend for Christmas. It’s her first in her apartment. We’ll be meeting some of the boyfriend’s family as well. A Merry Christmas to you Corey and all of your family. God Bless us all in 2011.
My first Christmas away from home, Willows :(. Last minute plans include working overnight in a hospital, but I’ll be off by noon on Christmas Eve with a close friend or two stopping by to make Breakfast for dinner while celebrating with a 3 day weekend to follow! 🙂 Merry Christmas Corey! Are Sacha & Chelsea going to play Whist at the hall?
Last Minute, Haha, I typically can’t keep up, and it is usually a flurry of activity, with Christmas music going, twinkle lights lit, yummy Christmas kitchen smells filling the house, kids running around and then I take a breath and give utter Thanks for it all and Christ born. Thank you for sharing this holiday spirit and the beauty that is your home and hearth, Merry Christmas to you and all yours…take joy.
Small champagne bottles line our stairs up from the foyer, with clear gift bags of cheese, mini plates and cheese spreaders tied around necks and streaming ribbons. Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day guests take one home with them.
Each year I scurry around to find the theme of each Christmas for our stairs. Why, I ask you, why do I do this every year? Because it’s fun.
Packages to wrap. A Christmas concert to attend. Mostly just enjoy! Have a wonderful Christmas full of wonder and delight.
I just finished wrapping gifts this morning before heading to work. One more thing on our list is to make spinach-parmesan balls to take to a brunch on Christmas Day (we’ll do that tomorrow).
I’ll be getting ready to play my harp at Christmas Eve service — and I just found out that there will be sherry and cheeses and hors d’oeuvres served afterward!
So I’ll be making my specialty to share: a scrumptious goat cheese, sundried tomato, basil pesto torte with fresh baguettes.
(Oh yeah, and wrapping all the presents Dad got for Mom thanks to Amy…)
Merry Christmas, Corey to you and your lovely family…from Wisconsin, USA
Merry Christmas Corey. Plans this year are a little different. Husband and I will spend Christmas Eve alone for the first time in years. But we’ve made some plans to treat ourselves well and I’m okay with that. We’ll be all together with the family on the 26th (Boxing Day).
I feel for you, with your children far away. May you hold each one closely in your heart.
Merry Christmas from New Mexico. I’ll have a tamale for you.
Merry Christmas Corey, family and everyone !
Children playing upstairs presently, simple plans – lunch with family and 91 year mother tomorrow.
I’m going to Rhonda P’s house..
No last minute plans – just hoping to get the rest of the cookies baked and, horror, the floor washed then up with my feet and a good movie or book in wait for old Santa and family.
For the first time since I can remember we will be home for Christmas Eve. Sister and Husband heading to New Mexico to visit their daughter and grandsons. Niece is singing in the church choir so we will go see her and attend the service. Christmas afternoon will be spent with two other sisters and their families with a Ham dinner. Merry Christmas to you.
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thanks you for sharing your life with all of us!
Merry Christmas to you and to your family dear Corey.
I have to run to get some fish for Christmas Eve and make potato salad …
wrap
Two days ago a friend in the Azores emailed me a preview of his latest short-story (ca. 1100 words), at once both literary and cute, about Xmas. So I hunkered down and did a first draft English translation, which I forwarded to my Portuguese professor to correct, then return. We’ve been polishing it like crazy via email all day (hence my late arrival here), and hope to be able to email it to the author as a surprise tonight or tomorrow. He’s just posted the story on his blog, and it may appear elsewhere too. Hope he likes our work… If he DOES choose to post it online, I’ll send you the URL.
Merry Christmas from Santa Cruz, CA. to you and your family. We will not have a tree this year but as is my custom I have put lights and decorations on my Eiffel Tower in the living room. It was meant for the garden but I can’t seem to let it out of the house.
Off to the grocery shop to buy fresh vegetables and fruit for tomorrow’s big lunch. Must buy cherries. In Australia cherries are one of THE Christmas foods and it will be warm here in Adelaide – 34C.
We are going the Bay Area to my B-I-L’s for Christmas. It gets harder and harder to get my husband’s large family together as the next generation moves all over the world. My family is just my sister and me and she goes where I go.
It will be fun, it always is, but I do miss the old days when everyone was there, including my parents and my inlaws.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
On Christmas Eve, I am driving 250 miles to deliver an electric wheel chair to a friend who has been in a hospital for the last 9 weeks. He is near San Francisco and his chair was back at his home. They gave him a regular wheel chair but due to an old should problem, it’s hard for him to get around with it. My wife is working all day so I might as well help an old friend.
Greetings from Texas….
Stockings full (we don’t exchange big presents anymore)….ham defrosting…just waiting until I can prepare our Christmas Feast.
Merry Christmas Corey and family…please give a big Christmas hug to Annie for me.
Merry Christmas to all……
I don’t have any. I am at my Grandma’s house! Yay! 😀
Waiting for sister-in-law and step-daughter to arrive, then dinner and bed. Long day at work today, delivering last-minute packages for the post office. Glad to have finally reached the point when its too late to do anything more! Just relax and make do with whatever is done.
Merry Christmas from Foresthill, California!
An unannounced unplanned visit early Christmas Eve to my brothers! It was perfect!
Leave a Reply