Les Fêtes 2007

Having missed publishing anything in December, I also missed out on putting up any pictures or stories from Hanuka and Christmas. Here's how it went:

Hanuka:
Pretty quiet all together. Ilan and Suzy left for China after the first night so we didn't see too much of them. Also, since they are the natural masters of ceremony, we didn't do too much after the first night. (Why China? Ilan was participating in a conference relating to his job, Suzy was going along to see a bit of the world.) It was a nice night together, though Esther was totally exhausted from work and being a bit under the weather. I got a pedometer.

Throughout the following nights, Esther and I lit candles when we remembered, which was almost every night, and she told me the meaning of Hanuka. Maccabees.

Christmas:
Arguably a bit more exciting because it involved intercontinental travel (for me, at least) and completely surprising my family. I got on a plane on Dec. 22nd and flew back to Detroit after stopping off in Philly. Mike picked me up and took me back to his house where he was preparing a party for family and friends which was, naturally, a perfect opportunity to surprise everyone all at once. When we arrived only Pete was there. He was working on something in the oven so I walked up behind him and poked him in the side. He turned around and was visibly confused for a few moments. Happiness ensued.

Later, Mom and Dad showed up. I hid in the bathroom until what I judged was the right moment to spring my surprise. I walked out and said hi to Mom and Dad, Mom cried a bit, Dad was more or less blown away. I couldn't figure out why Dad was wearing the medium brown corduroy suit that I bought for Homecoming 2001 (an admittedly awesome Salvation Army find). Then I remembered that it was a Cousin Eddie (the classless relative from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) themed event. Apparently Dad was “that guy” who actually got dressed up according to the theme. The party continued, some of my friends showed up. Dad learned two things that night, 1) what a Jägerbomb is, and 2) that he really likes Jägerbombs.

The rest of Christmas went just like Christmas always has gone. On the 24th we had dinner at Oma and Opa's house and on the 25th we had brunch and presents at our house. One odd aspect was that my mom had already sent me my presents in the the mail to France so I had to bring one of them back so that I would have something to open. Through the magic of the intertubes, we were able to have Esther with us via Skype. She opened our other presents which include a book of monkey portraits by Jill Greenberg, a fantastic series and a perfect gift. We look at it at night before falling asleep in the hopes of having monkey dreams.

On the evening of the 27th I flew back to Paris on a one-way ticket. It was quite sad and I couldn't escape wishing that all of the people that I love lived closer together. It's quite unpleasant to be pulled back to one location only to feel that you're being torn away from something else. Unfortunately, the most geographically central landmass between Michigan and Paris is Greenland. Any takers? I hear Godthåb is beautiful...uhhh...er....11 days a year.

In summary, 2007 was a great year for end-of-year holidays. It was wonderful to see everyone in the US, please enjoy the pictures below.

Les Fetes 2007