Well, Christmas shopping this year was relatively easy. I mean, how hard could it be to send gift cards and/or pre-wrapped internet purchases. A good solid couple of hours of web surfing and 'presto-chango' we have all our shopping done. Not how I like to do things really, since I love wrapping gifts and making a big production of things, but those urges will have to be put aside for a couple more years. This year we didn’t even get a tree, and that’s a first for me.
No tree this year because it would just add to the general chaos around the house as we are in the midst of packing and planning for the first of several trips. As many of you know, we will be spending the end of the year in Italy. We are driving, of course, because S likes driving, but mostly because it offers us the opportunity to stop when and where we want and to squeeze more stops into our whirlwind tour of Italy. We've made hotel reservations beginning Christmas Eve in Milan, then on to Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples and finally Pisa before heading home on January 2nd. We'll take lots of pictures and try to journal some stuff, but there may not be much time for that. We are armed with our ‘Atlas Routier Italie’ and also with several books from our ever growing collection of 'Lonely Planet' Travel books. We have obtained travel books for Italy, Rome, Florence, Tuscany & Umbria also the condensed pocket versions of Rome, Venice and Florence which provide us with street maps. We also purchased (Also from our friends at Lonely Planet) Fast Talk Italian, though Elian (French coach who speaks Italian) has told us that Spanish is quite passable in Italy, and after looking at the books I think she's right, it is quite similar.
We're quite excited about it and if you'd like a copy of our itinerary, e-mail me (no later than noon on the 23rd).
January 15th thru 18th we will be in Tunisia. It'll be my first experience in a Muslim country and the Lonely Planet Tunisia book has a lot of practical advice for travel in this country. We're hoping to get a good look at Carthage and a quick peak at the Sahara. More info on this trip later.
In February we're hitting Seville, Spain. Well, S has meetings nearby and we'll book-end his business travel with two weekends of exploration.
And then in May we will be back in Illinois for J's college graduation! I know! Our baby is graduating from college! We are so proud of her. She is so responsible and smart and beautiful and trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent...(I do get carried away don't I!) Soooo...mark your calendars, the date is May 14th. The best part is that J is planning to come back to France with us for the summer. This will give us at least two months of mother/daughter travel, well ‘father’ travel too, if he can squeeze some time off into his busy schedule.
Well, coming back to the immediate future, I think that S and I will go see ‘Ocean’s 12’ tonight. It’s playing in VO downtown and it’s been quite a while since we’ve been to see a movie. I wanted to see 'The Polar Express' and ‘The Incredibles’ (in France it was ‘The Invincibles’) but they only played in French. Looks like Amazon.com will be dropping those by the house instead.
Well as you can tell our year ahead is full of plans. So this is the part where I get to wish you all a happy and memorable Christmas/Hanukkah and a New Year full of plans and family and memory making adventures.
Love from France, and I'll catch you in 2005.
Missy
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