Joyeux Noël

Haven't had time to breathe much less blog but just wanted to send an extra special Merry Christmas and Joyeux Noël to all of my readers.  I hope that you have an extra special day today and it was filled with as much love and laughter as mine was!  

This time last year I was spending Christmas in the south of France with little Marie-Césare and her family.  It was strange how I missed my family in Tennessee so much when I was gone, but what was even stranger was the empty hole I felt this Christmas without the Lachaize family in the same room.  The traditions that came to be over the past two years were inexplicably beautiful and I was and forever will be thankful for their welcome arms.  I remember last year, in the afternoon on Christmas Day, I went with Padi and Didou to Avignon and we toured the city and the Pope's Palace.  It was certainly a Christmas outing to remember for the rest of my life...and their generosity and willingness to want to take me to new places was something I will never forget.  

This year was extra special however.  It was the first Christmas that my Mimi stepped out of the kitchen and let me and my Aunt Janie do all the work for dinner.  It was the first Christmas Toby spent with us (not as a wee baby!) and began to understand how fun Christmas and Santa Claus is.  It was the first time in a very long time that the entire Flynn crew had been together in one place.  My parents went above and beyond what is necessary for any one child on Christmas, which I am thankful for...but this Christmas was all about spending time with family and doing traditional things I love to do.  The whole entire day in our matching pj's just hanging around the house?  Yes, please!  Being with the people I love, all in the same place, on one day.  And although running back and forth between mom's and dad's and Murfreesboro and church and Mimi's and Granny's and cooking and cooking and cooking is hectic over the holidays....I wouldn't change a thing.  Because those are the people I love the most in the world and I would rather be right here, with them, in little Lawrenceburg.  And while the quiet of the evening comes to a close and the rustle of wrapping paper and ribbons comes to a halt....I try and take in as much as possible because although it won't be my last...who knows where this crazy girl will be next Christmas???