A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 19 – Sunday Progress Report #3

 December 21, 2020

It is now the third weekend in the holiday season of 2020. This past week has been a mixed bag of stressful effort and peaceful calm. I selected and purchased the last of the gifts yesterday. It always seems strange to me that gift-giving, which is usually a sincere expression of caring, can yet be stressful. I guess it’s because gifts are expected in this season.  Here in this holiday season of CoVid-19 2020, most of my gifts were purchased online and will be delivered to the recipient’s door. The ordering online part is not new to me. I order most gifts online anyway whether it’s a national CoVid-19 lockdown or not. I started purchasing stock in Amazon years ago because I loved the online order and delivery so much!

The few presents that I will exchange with my husband and children are all purchased and (mostly) wrapped. Most of those presents, I did go out to stores and find them in-person. Thank heavens, France relaxed the national lockdown restrictions on stores being open December 1! 

We watched the Phinneas and Ferb Season 9 “New Year’s” episode this past week. We all giggled through it even though the children started out feeling that they were too old and cool to enjoy an animated children’s cartoon. Other “Christmas” movie suggestions include Die Hard (because the action takes place during a Christmas party.) The Marvel movies are also up on the suggestion list (I’m not sure exactly how the Marvel collection of movies tie into a Christmas theme.) I’m suggesting The Grinch Who Stole Christmas or White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. I’m not sure what our next family movie night will feature!

Picking out the last presents was mildly stressful but I’m glad it’s completed. It feels a bit odd knowing that there will be no extended family get-togethers and gift exchanges or shared meals. Maybe this might spark some conversations within my larger family about what we really enjoy about the holiday season and what “traditions” might peacefully slip away.

I’m still working on keeping a calm and peaceful feeling uppermost in my mind. I’m sad to say that I have had several snappish and inpatient episodes (is it really so difficult to put one’s dirty glass in the dishwasher all by one’s little lonesome as opposed to leaving it in the sink for the kitchen help (that would be Moi) to put in the dishwasher for one?) Not my calmest moment, I assure you!

Ah, well, there are still 2 more weeks of this holiday season 2020 to navigate and enjoy.  I know that I will have plenty of opportunities to practice handling little irritations with grace and elegance! (Maybe I should take Fiona’s very good advice and practice a couple of scripts….)

I wish everyone a chic and fun new holiday week!