Today I was feeling pretty good, no pain at all and feeling less tired than in recent days, so today we put up our little Christmas tree. It's the first time since I moved to France that I was able to use a lot of my own ornaments that I brought over last year from back home. I have a lot more still stored in NJ but they're all the really fragile ones and will have to be carefully packed and shipped at a future date. But it made me really happy to see familiar ornaments on our tree -- including one very tiny red glass ornament with blobs of old glitter, circa 1961. It was from my first Christmas tree and the only one that survived. It's nice to see the tree up now, and it will really cheer me when I come home and it's already here to greet me.
I had a nice long Skype chat with my family which will be the last opportunity to video chat with them until I'm home (unless by some miracle this hospital has WiFi), and that did me a world of good, too. My sister decorates her home so beautifully especially at Christmas so they gave me a little tour of the 10-foot tree and the candles on the mantle, and more.
Then when it got dark, Georges and I hopped a bus to the Champs Elysées. I wanted at least ONE fun Christmas-in-Paris experience this year before I will effectively be out of commission for the next few weeks. I took photos of all the lights, then we walked part of the Christmas market and looked at the different things for sale. I was drooling over the smell of the hot mulled wine but can't have any alcohol just now. We got very excited to find our favorite gingerbread-fruit-spice cookies made in Strasbourg and bought 6 bags. (I told Georges he can eat one bag while I'm gone because he needs a treat to keep his spirits up, too, but he has to save the rest for the family over the holidays. As a family we are crazy about these cookies!)
I was too tired to walk the whole length of the market but we covered enough of it, and got some sugar crepes at the end to eat on the bus going home. It felt so great to have gotten out in the fresh air and to do something fun like that. We capped it off by watching A Christmas Story when we got home. ("Oh... Fuuuuudddddggggge.")
So now I feel like we've had a little Christmas spirit to get us through the next 10 days or so. Every happy moment matters.
Don't know when I'll be back to blogging but please continue to keep us all in your thoughts over the coming week. Your outpouring of support means the world to us. Merci, mes amis!
