An American Thanksgiving in Paris

I feel that everyone should know the success of this American girl's Thanksgiving in Paris. We had to do it a day early because Taryn and I both babysat on Thursday night, but it was actually nice because I literally have nothing to do during the day on Wednesday, so Victoria and I cooked a bunch of stuff. I made probably 6 batches of chocolate chip cookies for the kids, then a few American classics for my Thanksgiving feast. These included green beans baked with bacon, butter and brown sugar and a sweet potato casserole that also contained a lot of butter and brown sugar and also had marshmallows on top. The mom and Victoria thought this was very bizarre. One of them said something along the lines of, "you Americans, you put such weird things in your food." Like the French can talk about weird things in food. I once had a soup here that contained both foie gras and frog legs. Not that it wasn't delicious, but don't give me a hard time about putting weird stuff in MY food. Anyway, because turkey is surprisingly hard to come by around here, I bought a roast chicken and I also roasted some potatoes. Taryn told me she knows I'm a Southern girl because I overprepare food when I have company. Taryn, Nicola and Kate came over brought wine, stuffing, cranberry bread pudding and pumpkin pie. It was a pretty epic feast, and I even got to have leftovers the next day. Nicola is an Aussie and she had never experienced the wonder that is Thanksgiving. We had to explain to her how important it is to wear expandable clothing because it is the one day a year when it is entirely acceptable to overeat. Indeed, it is expected of you.

Big news of the week: I now have both the INTERNET and a TELEPHONE in my room. That's right, kids, this girl right here is the lucky owner of modern technology. Thank goodness. Now I can do important things like work on job applications. And, you know, blog. Also, my room is basically a winter wonderland. I bought Christmas lights and an apple and cinnamon candle and I'm currently listening to Handel's Messiah, no joke. I'm pretty much a Christmas elf. I considered buying this headband that I saw that had a Santa hat perched on top, but I chose not to for several reasons:

1. My mother has been known on occaison to don a headband with antlers and bells, and I'm just not ready to be that much like her... yet.

2. Who would I wear it in front of? The family? My friends? In public? Or, pathetically, by myself as I dance / frolic around my room to such Christmas classics as Pink Martini's rendition of Little Drummer Boy.

3. It was something absurd like 12 euros, which would buy me a very small (VERY small) Christmas tree or a nice potted plant. I think the latter choices would be a nicer waste of the little bit of money that I have.

Here's something weird those of you in the U.S. might not know. You know how we're totally horrified if people start playing Christmas music / decorating for Christmas / thinking about Christmas AT ALL before Thanksgiving? And how if it happens before Halloween we go into anaphalactic shock and possibly hold the offender at gunpoint until they put their decorations away until the proper time, dammit? Well, here in France they don't celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving, so I saw decorations going up as early as late October. I mean, clearly the major stuff didn't start to appear until late November, but it was all still very premature by American standards. Now everything is up, though, and tourist-heavy places like the Champs Elysees look lovely. It's nice. Also, over on this side of the Atlantic, they have major pre-Christmas sales. I find this strange, as in the U.S. we usually have the huge Black Friday sale and then not much till after Christmas. It is, however, convenient given all the people I am shopping for this year.

That's all I have for you this evening. I haven't had any good erroneous denim sightings recently, but I am going shopping tomorrow so here's hoping. Joyeux Noel!