Geneva: December 25, 2023…. Happy Happy and Merry Merry…

Merry Xmas –

Today we headed to Elizabeth’s house in Carouge for Xmas Dinner. Carouge is about 2 miles from the center of Geneva and easily reached by tram (or you can walk—about 35 or 40 minutes). We’ve often walked but given that we needed to bring all of our gifts, we opted for a taxi. Dinner included all of us, plus Julian’s mother and aunt and cousin and an old friend who lives in Geneva but has lived in many places in the world. His English had a distinct American accent—turns out he lived for three years in Miami. Total was, I think 11 adults and 4 kids; Siena stayed home with the nanny,

After all the present exchanges and the kids finally settling down to watch a movie, the grown ups had dinner, prepared by Hem and Em and Julian. The present exchanges took a long time what with so many people and kids. We learned that Ella is quite direct and opinionated, and made no secret of presents she liked and those she didn’t. All things pink and purple were clearly the hit with her. For the boys, there was lots of excitement with things that had working components; the lights that you wear on your head to see in the dark and the measuring tapes were a big hit. The dog seemed to have fun with the wrapping paper and general excitement to which she could add her own mischief.

Dinner was pretty traditional and excellent: caviar and blini for starters along with some fish pate; capon and guinea fowl with lyonnaise potatoes, green beans, roasted carrots, and beets; all followed by three different buche noels.. and of course, lots of wine. Before-dinner-conversation centered around the potential of a Trump presidency with the French being totally appalled by the idea and what they felt was an “impossibilité’ and we all anguished over the move to the Right everywhere. We also explained a bit about the electoral college—something noone seems to understand fully.

At dinner, we focused more of the conversation on food, and where to have Xmas next year, with Julian’s mother offering up Angoulême (about 45 minutes from Bordeaux) as the option. Sounds good to me.

That’s it… Tomorrow we will head to Halles de Rive for lunch and then we are supposed to go to a circus with all the kids. Mike is a bit under the weather (cold or sore throat ; fortunately not Covid—he tested) so he may skip the circus. We shall see.

Best to all of you.
Fern

PS – This is, in some ways, the most relaxing trip I’ve taken in decades. My book is done and at the publishers and I’m between projects. So it’s much easier to concentrate on the here and now, rather than everything I left behind. Once I get back to the states, life will return to ‘normal.’