It's Christmas Time!

Feeling good about Christmas, I went about my normal Saturday morning errands.

It's a little warmer, all the better to run around the lovely Vavin area. In our neighborhood "downtown" is a beautiful flower shop (too expensive for me, but I can look...), many shoe, clothing and children's shops, two bakeries, several fast food places (including a Subway). Although the shops are small, I can get everything here.

But, when I got to the Presse (newsstand), the man told me that he is closing on the 22nd for two weeks. Yikes. Where will I get the newspaper? I cannot go to the man on rue de Rennes because he was rude to me. Perhaps I'll have to take a metro just to get the newspaper.

We also give our guardienne, Maria, a Christmas tip every year. She was heading out for vacation after work on Saturday. Normally, she works until noon. So, at about 11, I knocked on her door. The shutters were closed, no answer. I tried again, a little louder, no answer. So, I put our generous cash gift into my purse. No panic here, since, literally, anyone could do her job better than she does it and we only give her a tip to assure that the service level doesn't slide even lower. (Last week, she delivered an important Fed Ex package of mine to another apartment and then denied doing it until we tracked it to her signature).

Well, Merry Christmas.

I've started a new blog for the WICE conversation groups, be sure to check it out when you have a chance at http://wiceconversation.blogspot.com/

Mary and I will update all the latest happenings on this site.