Finding Christmas

So what do the wives do when their hard-working husbands work 12+ hour days? The work day here goes into the night....and the night comes early up here in the higher latitudes (around 4:30 pm).  So the days are short and the nights are long.  Many of us combat home-sickness  at this special time of year.  The week before Christmas was not filled with office parties, nor  frenzied shopping trips, nor wrapping presents.  It was more of a quiet Christmas time, watching the way the French do it.  No carols to speak of on the radio, no Christmas commercials on TV enticing you to buy what you don't need.  Neighborhood streets are lit up overhead, but rarely do you see apartment buildings and windows with lights.  No, it is a different scene here.....private, I guess.  There are no pre-Christmas sales, either.  Those sales come in January, so it is hard to want to spend precious euros when nothing is on sale.

But I kept busy.  Ordering presents over the internet, baking some cookies, going to the Galeries Lafayette to see the Christmas windows.  Lyle works....I play.  It doesn't seem fair, does it?

The huge tree at the Galeries Lafayette

Our little tree

Enjoying great desserts with my International Club

Singing Christmas carols with the Coffee group from Church

Walking along the Seine to see.....

..."The Sound of Music" (in English even) at the Chatelet Theater with.....

 my friend Amy and our French teacher, Michelle

We learned the ins and outs of getting "cheap seat" tickets from Michelle, getting 20 euro tickets and then moving up to better seats during intermission!

 

Seeing the Russian Christmas exhibit at the Madeleine Church with the Friday Tour Group....

 

Gawking at tacky Christmas trees on the street....

Passing out gift bags at the women's shelter....

Roaming the "Marche de Noel"......

.....and of course, the wonderful Christmas concert at church

This is how I spent the week before Christmas, filling my days so that I am not thinking so much of what I am missing with kids and grandkids.  We have learned to embrace the day, receiving the blessings that we are given, and anticipate the next year with all that we will experience when that comes to us.