Hello! I know many of you love to stay in touch with me by hearing about my life through my blog. Although I haven't made time to blog as much as I used to in years past, I had such an interesting December that I thought I would share some stories and photos.
December for me started off with a trip to Toulouse France.
This trip was not planned well in advance. Basically my friend Lee-Ann (who works in Scotland) texted me saying she had to go to Toulouse for work and gave me the dates.
I replied with "Great, I'll look at flights"
I realized later that at no time did she actually officially invite me to join her. At no time did I officially ask if I could join her.
I guess that's the benefit of having close, long time friends. Some things are just understood and unspoken.
I love being around french speakers. I love spending time with my dear friend Lee-Ann. OBVIOUSLY if she is telling me she has to go to work in France and giving me dates, she wants me to come! Since I work remotely, I figured it was all the same if I work in my basement on my computer or in Toulouse on my computer right?
The arrival was perfect. I was greeted by my smiling friend and she informed me she had already stocked our hotel room with four types of cheese and fresh pastries from the bakery across the street. EXCELLENT!
I figure the key to adjusting to the time change is to power through. Therefore although I didn't sleep much on the flight over, I refused to nap so we went straight to the holiday markets and browsed the stalls and nibbled the food. The market was so easy to get to from our hotel we returned a few times. I made sure to eat a lot of things that involved cheese and potatoes. BTW hot chocolate is lame in Toronto compared to Hot chocolate in France! (think willy wonka chocolate factory melted hot chocolate)
I arrived on a weekend so day 1 was the market, day 2 was visiting an old medieval fortified city called Carcassonne.
It was amazing! The weather was perfect and we felt transported back in time as we toured the old castle and fortified city with its cobblestone streets and old buildings.
One evening during the week we were invited to have dinner with Lee-Ann's French research counterpart, Pierre.
We met his family and ate a home cooked meal. Talk about hospitality!
Much of the conversation was in French and I was so happy!
Lee-Ann's french has improved quite a bit since our last France excursion to Paris two years ago. She credits that to duolingo!
I found that when I was in Paris, I didn't use my French skills very much because somehow it seemed hardly anyone understood me and I couldn't understand them. The citizens in Paris seemed too impatient to make the effort and were always switching to English. Toulouse was a whole other story! The people seemed to naturally speak more slowly and had no problem conversing with me in French.
During our dinner, I shared a photo I had taken at the local convenience store with the family.
When I saw this set up at the store, I was quite concerned. Can you see what is wrong with this set up?
It appears to be a section full of drinks. You can see all the sodas but although the second shelf also appears to have colourful beverages, I could clearly read the labelling and it was dish soap and laundry detergent.
I felt this was a very bad idea to put the dishsoap and laundry detergent in the same section as the beverages because if you couldn't read french you might buy it thinking it is a drink!
When I shared the photo with the family, the wife was very concerened. She kept saying "C'est dangereux" and I responded "Oui, bien sur c'est dangereux"
The husband was laughing and making jokes like "this is how we keep the tourist population under control"
This discussion along with others such as the difference between Canadian french and France french kept the discussion lively and interesting. I even shared a stamping video from one of the French Canadian demonstrators and the family couldn't stop laughing because the accent was so foreign to them. They finally agreed that yes, it was indeed french that was being spoken but with an accent.
I mentioned that Lee-Ann and I both had to work while we were in Toulouse right? I had mistakenly imagined that we would both work hard during the day and in the evening we could take in dinners and sights together.
I obviously didn't think it through very well because Yes, Lee-Ann worked hard all day. I would wake up in the morning and she had already gone to the bakery, gotten me fresh pastries and left for work.
I found because my meetings were still on North American time, I worked hard during the day but really mostly in the evenings!
One evening I had a meeting at 6pm Eastern time which in case you didn't know is midnight France time. During the day when Lee-Ann was at work, I wondered how I was going to do this meeting as I didn't want to disturb her need to sleep. I came up with a brilliant plan.
I would do my night meetings in the bathroom!!!
As a former Occupational Therapist, I did my best to set up my work station as ergonomically as possible considering I was in a bathroom. (Please notice my suitcase on the short table to elevate the height of my laptop)
The weekend before we flew home, we visited a small medival town called Albi, and visited an ancient church.
We thought what luck! We've arrived during mass. We realized our error when they started carrying a casket down the aisle. I quickly put my head down as the procession passed by for fear the widow would stop and make conversation and ask how I knew her husband. And so now I've attended a French funeral.
We ate more yummy food and then off to our respective homes.
I could tell you more amusing stories of Genevieve in Toulouse but time to move on to my next adventure in December: Mont Tremblant in Quebec.
The number one goal of the trip to Quebec was to spend time with my very independent university student daughter. Her exams finished in mid-December and I know she enjoys active, outdoor activity so the ski hills of Tremblant seemed appropriate.
Sadly I don't really know how to ski. I can barely, with a lot of concentration, make it down the easiest hills in Ontario.
My skiing in Tremblant was practically a death wish but I knew my daughter would love the skiing and she did. I on the other hand, spent a lot of time praying and talking to myself inside my head as I found the experience extremely challenging.
At one point Michelle found me on one of the easy hills and videotaped me.
One time when I had fallen very badly, I started off feeling positive and confident that I could get up and continue but after about 30 minutes of struggle to get up and get my skis back on, I was pretty exhausted.
I was really hoping one of those ski patrol people would come by and pick me up but apparently they can tell when someone is not dying because they just skidoo right by me offering no help whatsoever.
I started practicing in my head what I would shout the next time they came by "Monsieur! J'ai besoin d'aide! " (Sir, I need help!) But then I would tell myself I didn't need their help and that I could do this myself and then I would talk to myself in French to cheer myself up
"Je suis capable, c'est ben possible" "peut-etre ca va etre la derniere fois je fais du ski"
(I am capable, it's definitely possible, maybe this is going to be the last time I ski)
Anyway, I eventually did manage to get myself organized after that terrible tumble and made it down the rest of the hill in one piece.
I was so exhausted!
I was grateful just to spend a little time with her since I see her so rarely so I tried not to dwell on the skiing part too much.
After skiing I definitely felt like I deserved the maple taffy on snow. A fun quebecois treat where they pour thick syrup on the snow and after a short time, you wind it up on a stick and eat it like a lollipop.
The rest of December seemed to fly by!
All the kids were home and enjoyed hanging out together
When Kevin was off work and I was still working, I got a lunch date at a local Thai restaurant
Traditional Christmas eve candlelight service at church
December was also a time to share stamping!
I truly believe the joy and connection of creativity with Stampin' Up! ® is meant to be shared!
I did a little stamping with Kevin's parents. Kevin's mom struggles with using her hands after two strokes but she was pretty proud of the image she stamped on a notecard using our now retired stamparatus tool.
I also organized and held an event for demonstrators locally as part of my job as a demonstrator development manager with Stampin' Up! ®
. We did a little stamping with new saleabration products and learned what is new and coming with Stampin' Up! ®
I sure did a lot in December but that's not all!
December finished up and I welcomed the new year in Disneyworld.
A very happy place indeed!
The original plan was that our whole family would enjoy a family vacation together but this didn't work out since it turned out our daughter needed to go to Vanacouver to prepare for her next semester's internship term. So, Kevin and Michelle headed off to Vancouver while myself and the two boys came with me to Disney.
I would have enjoyed having the whole family together but there was something fun and special about just being with my sons who are now basically adults. I consider it a great blessing that they were willing to hang out with me!
We had a wonderful time and the sunshine was much needed (I hate the dark days of winter!)
Whew! So that was a rundown of my December! It was definitely busy but I am a fan of maximizing my days!
Life is short and I always want to make time for my priorities!
I wake up every morning grateful for my family, my stamping community, my faith, my job, my church community and the anticipation of what adventures will come in the future.
Happy belated new year!
I hope you'll join me for some activities in 2025. You can always see what's happening at my linktree
linktr.ee/stampin4fun
Thanks for dropping in!
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