merry christmas!

merry christmas. stop. mystery guest and i alive and well. stop. drinking much eggnog and all around christmas goodness. stop. another update coming hopefully soon. end. :-)

ho ho ho!

Things are busy busy! Today I spent the day getting ready for my upcoming trip to the US! I can't wait! So today is last minute packing and then right after work tomorrow Mystery Guest and I jump on a train to Paris. We spend the night there and then embark on our 16 hour journey to Seattle Thursday afternoon.

It's going to be a long trip but I'm getting excited, it's been 2 years since I was home for Christmas and eggnog, real mint candy canes and pumpkin everything are going to be waiting for me! Yippee!!

xmas brunch

To ring in the holidays and upcoming vacation I had some friends over for a Christmas brunch today!!

There was Elf #1.

Elf #2

and Elf #3

And amazing kitchen godess, maker of blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and sauteed taters with cheddar. :-)

And of course a big thanks to Mr. Mystery Guest for the fabulous pictures :-)

holiday fun

This afternoon I braved the crazy-Saturday-afternoon-before-Christmas-holiday-crowds for a few little last minute presents (did I mention that I'm leaving in 5 days??? whoo!!!).

Its already crazy going shopping on a Friday afternoon in France (as everything is closed on Sundays) but right before Christmas its just nuts! But I got almost everything I need and to give myself a little reward I stopped by the bakery and picked up a fabulous little pastry. I had often seen it there but never tried, I'll describe its perfection to you as before I could take a picture it was already in my belly!

The bottom crust was made of a macaroon-type dough and was light, chewy and flavorful. Then a very lightly sweetened creamy paste was piped on and topped with fresh raspberries. As I cut into this little gem the raspberry juice had seeped all the way through the cream and crust ... Divine!

dreams

I haven't blogged for a couple days, nothing too exciting has been going on. I've been busy with work, Christmas shopping and catching up with friends before taking off for the States in 1 week's time! :-) Did you hear that? Yup baby in 7 days this little Milk Jam will be on a plane zooming over the Atlantic with Mystery Guest! Yippeee!!!

So apparently my conscience knows that I feel guilty about not blogging for a few days because as I was sitting here enjoying my one morning off this week, cup of coffee in hand, reading my favorite blogs I suddenly remembered my dream last night.

Its not often that I remember dreams, and if I do usually I'm too embarrassed to tell anyone about them. But last night I dreamt (or dreamed?) that I went to Paris and met up with a group of bloggers, all those lovely people who's lives I know about and whom I've never met. They were so nice and I had so much fun in my dream... what does that mean?? That is the weird thing about this new blogging phenomenon, you can know someone's life so intimately without ever having physically met the person. I read a blogger's take on this a few days ago, if you get a chance to read Maitress' article its quite interesting.

xmas carols!

holiday season

It's been a busy weekend so far! On Friday night I went with Mystery Guest to see Huis Clos, a play by Sartre. Too bad the interpretation was too modern for my taste, but it still makes me want to read the book.

Then on Saturday afternoon we road tripped out to Honfleur with a friend to go Christmas shopping. There are so many cute little boutiques with regional products and with the Christmas lights its a great way to spend an afternoon! I've got almost all the Christmas presents on my list, good thing too because we're off to the States in 11 days! Yeah baby count them 11...!!

The Anglican church in town is having a Christmas concert tonight so I'm going to go get in the Christmas spirit with some carols. Its such a nice tradition and one that isn't too popular here so got to take advantage :-) Pictures and maybe a little movie to come!

small town life

I read my hometown's paper (pop 8,000) every once in a while. Its a fun way to keep up with whats going on in town.

What I love about a small town is when you get headlines like "Traffic Jam blocks town" and then this picture...

Happy Friday everyone!

puns

One of the best things about being in a multi-language relationship is the multi-language plays on words... or at least it is to me :-) I get the biggest laugh out of these bilingual jokes, could be because your brain has to be switched onto two languages at once, or that I have a silly since of humor, or maybe just that I love the privateness that comes with inside jokes...

But here are two of my favorites:

- The chou smells! (Referring to the stinky cabbage, and/or shoes)

-This Château des Taps is divine! (A play on the name of a wine when we were actually drinking water - tap water that is)

tee hee got me a case of the giggles now!

Happy 1 Year my Mr. Mystery Guest!

library

Thursdays I don't work at all so my plan at the beginning of the year was to spend at least each Thursday in the library writing my memoire that needs to be written! Well until yesterday there was always something that came up and prevented me from having the time or energy.

So yesterday I blocked off all morning to spend in the library. I trucked up there with my books, my trousse and my brain. But the library is just so overwhelming - the research is daunting. Where to begin? How do I find what I need? What do I need? But I was motivated, just being there, the smell and atmosphere that I havn't been in for several years. Rearing to go I dove in.

I came up gasping for air so I went to the documentaliste and they were so nice and although they didn't have time yesterday to explain everything to me they did make me an appointment for Friday afternoon.

Today after an early morning start at work I headed over to the library. The appointment was very very helpful, they showed me so many different ways to do research and really exploit all the research possible. But my brain was sadly not as ready to go, I was sadly missing that energy that I had yesterday so after the meeting I went home with that new information with the promise to go back as soon as possible next week...