Cam's arrival coincided with some awesome Christmas-y events and we had a wonderful, festive weekend drinking Christmas beer, listening to Christmas songs, putting up Christmas lights, etc etc. Cam’s visit also gave us the chance to act like tourists…and by that I mean we used his presence as an excuse to eat more pastries than usual and compare every baguette in the neighborhood.
The most magical moment of the weekend was when it started to snow at the Christmas market. I nearly exploded with festive cheer. The Christmas market is indeed adorable and fantastic at capitalizing on how much of a chump I am during the holidays. Along with standard Christmas market fare, they also sell everyone’s favorite foods and beverages BUT made even better by being heated up and/or spiced. Examples: hot wine, melted cheese, hot waffles, spicy hot beer (skeptical about this one but I obviously have to try it because it’s seasonal and I bet it’s Santa’s drink of choice), and so on…
The best part is that we can continue these activities this weekend with Katie. Also, unrelated to Christmas, I am very excited to have someone to talk to when Cam and Carson start talking about Star Wars. It was fine at the beginning, but I can only handle listening to so many theories about Jar Jar Binx. (I feel like I should be embarrassed by how wrong I potentially spelled this/Carson will never let me live it down, but I’m leaving it as is to show the extent of mental effort that I am willing to put towards Star Wars from now on).
It snowed on and off all of Sunday and we could not have been more obnoxiously happy about it. Also, the festive cheer continued all week thanks to the reception of two awesome packages from Cathy and my Dad. Carson’s mom sent us a BUNCH of thanksgiving food that you can’t find here (pumpkin purée, Pepperage farm stuffing mix, cranberry sauce in a can, corn muffin mix, and of course a bag of Reece’s) through a magical service called my American Market. I can’t decide if I’m more excited about the cranberry sauce (Cathy had no idea but canned cranberry sauce is possibly my favorite thing on the planet) or the pumpkin pie. We’ll be sure to take pictures of all of our creations.
Of course, Carson was able to pick up his package from the post office without any issues, while I had to go on a horrible bureaucratic treasure hunt to find mine. I saw the package slip after work one day, and dropped all my intended plans to trudge to the post office in the rain because I REALLY wanted that package. When I got there, the man informed me that the package was not there and that he could not do anything to help me find it because he had no computers...or Internet...or phone. Apparently our post office was moving locations and only acting as a...kind of...post office. He advised me to go online and look up my package location. When I did this, it once again said that it was at the same post office. I went back the next day and the same guy still had no idea. I asked if it could be at another post office, to which he responded: “Yeah, I just don’t think it would be at another one.”
....well if it isn’t at this one, and it isn’t at my house, then where the hell could it be?? Is there a secret location in France that random packages are put just so France can maintain its reputation as the least efficient western European country to exist ever?
Anyway...I checked online again the next day and it said there was something wrong with the address. I sent them a strongly worded message over Facebook (because they didn’t have an email or phone number...?) confirming that the address was correct and WHERE THE HELL IS MY PACKAGE. My status the next day said “out for delivery,” so I waited eagerly at home.
When I checked it again a bit later, it said it had been delivered...to the same post office it had already been delivered to three times. I returned again, this time with absolutely zero percent hope, and found that it was just...closed down overnight. Entirely. I was baffled at the inability of this post office to just be a post office. There was an address vaguely written on a sheet of paper taped to the door, so I figured I would give it a shot since it was close by.
Finally, I got my package. I have no idea why the guy didn’t mention that this post office about 50 feet away existed. Regardless, it was worth the wait and Carson and I have no idea what to do with all of the incredible food now in our possession. My dad sent a very random and wide assortment of items, from chocolate covered Oreos that are decorated like penguins to a container of tuna...so we will certainly have fun with that over the next few weeks.
In other news, since it’s Thanksgiving, we’re going over to a friend’s place for dinner. There should be about 10 people and in theory everyone is bringing a dish. I’m still not sure what I’m going to take, but I don’t have any time to cook and don’t want to lug a casserole across the city, so I’ll probably take some canned green beans...and more than likely wine so that people will forget that I’m the one who brought canned green beans.
After dinner, we’re going to pick up Katie at the train station. She gets in pretty late and Carson and I work on Fridays, so we our having our official friendsgiving on Saturday. We will be sure to take pictures of all the awesome stuff we make AND of the beautiful decorations I put up this week. I found a fake tree for 5 euros that actually looks great and a bunch of other adorable things that need to be shown in pictures and not just described. I PROMISE the next post will contain pictures. Promise.
Anywho, happy thanksgiving!! We love and miss you all and are thankful for your existence/hope you have the most wonderful day possible!
I am quite certain they were not discussing Jar Jar Binks (a laughable and egregious prequel trilogy character). If he were with other McKee male family members, maybe Reid Hunt. Most likely different theories on how Han, Luke, and Leia tie into the new movie, and how they interact with the new characters.
ReplyDelete(last sentence and Jar-Jar Binks parentheticals added by Skylar McKee)