Christmas Eve Traditions

It's Christmas Eve here in Paris. Being away from family is difficult, but we're enjoying spending time with our friends Joy and Jake and creating our own holiday traditions. For example, we began the evening with a rousing game of French Monopoly.

We suspended the game to walk 10 minutes to the Église Notre-Dame de la Croix de Ménilmontant to attend the 11:00 p.m. Veillée de Noël service. The church is large, beautiful, and felt very much like a local parish (we had considered going to the other Notre Dame, but thought it might feel a bit too touristy).

The Veillée service consisted mainly of organ music, singing, and readings. We all liked it when the organist pumped up the bass, and didn't really like it when the song leader sang out of our range.

We left just in time to see the start of the midnight mass. It was cold, we're not Catholic, and hey, we had a Monopoly game to finish! Merry Christmas Eve!

Monopoly

Monopoly
Originally uploaded by kaiserstein

For my birthday this year, my ever-so-thoughtful sister gave me a gift certificate to Amazon.fr - the French version of Amazon.com. This gift was perfect. I waited a few weeks (ok, over a month) before I used the certificate because I wanted to see what we would end up needing/wanting the most here in Paris. I considered several options: a milk foamer/steamer, a new toy for Panda, or perhaps some new jewelry? In the end, I chose something that I think will be useful in the coming months (when we have visitors) as well as when we return to Somerville (and miss Paris). Yesterday, Louis and I christened the brand-new Monopoly game that was purchased from Amazon.fr! (While it is not exactly a "Paris" version of Monopoly, all the properties are named after streets in Paris. Look carefully and you'll see the Boulevard de Belleville card!)

THANKS, EDEN!