Mon beau sapin, roi des forets, que j'aime ta parure

Back to Paris. Jetlagged, but happy to be here for just a few weeks before Christmas. I have a ton of work to do, but its good to be constructive.

Mostly I've been spending the week getting our apartment into the Holiday spirit. Meredith will not be going back to the states for Christmas due to work, so I thought it would be fun to have a fun Christmassy apartment. We have a beautiful christmas tree (the title of my post are the words to "O Christmas Tree" in French - my beautiful christmas tree, king of forests, how I love your greenness. HA!).


Friday, we hosted my belated 24th (eek!) birthday party with a group of friends. They gave me a fabulous coffee table book with black and white photographes of Parisiennes. I made fun and new appetizers, having been inspired by the cooking channel practically permanently on my sisters' TVs at home: mini carrots with humus, steamed chilled asparagus with smoked ham, stuffed cherry tomatoes with a mixure of boursin cheese and tuna, along with some other dips and stuff. We hung out at ours and I had my french friends taste the best ophir has to offer in wines - a bottle of chardonnay from Mount Vernon vineyard that I imported in my suitcase. The general opinion was that it was good, but a bit strong. I find that in general, California wines have a much stronger taste.



Then we moved on to a hole-in-the-wall pizzeria in our neighborhood. The old Italian owner gave me a fake Oscar statue as a birthday present, and was very patient when we were the last ones in the restaurant at midnight.




From there, it was our favorite dance spot, O'Sullivan's until the wee hours. All in all, it was a great party.



Sunday we went to do a sing-a-long Messiah at church. Best way to get in a holiday mood. This is Meredith and I enjoying the Hallelujah Chorus.