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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 20 – Christmas Day Food Pushers Rehearsal
December 22, 2020 In A Chic and Simple Christmas, author Fiona Ferris has a short section focused on how to handle, with grace, a situation in which someone is pressing more food or drink on us and we would prefer to decline. In fact, we may have declined several times and the person still offers. In her book, Better Than Before, author Gretchen Rubin describes food pushers as people who press others to reverse out of a healthy habit. We might hear someone say “You should enjoy yourself!” or “I baked this just for you!” What are some good stock phrases that enable us to slide quickly and easily through…
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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…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 18 – Christmas Day Food Rehearsal
December 20, 2020 Yesterday, I wrote about “Conversational Decorum” – how to enjoy social conversation showing thoughtfulness to others and consideration for ourselves. We can do this by using a mental practice session and prepared stock phrases to handle probable trouble areas/people. Today’s topic is along the same lines – using a mental practice session – but focused on how we want to feel around the holiday buffet. Fiona Ferris writes about her experiences with different approaches to food in her book, A Chic and Simple Christmas. My own holiday food experiences are very similar to hers. I love sweets and appetizers and have, in the past, thrown myself giddily…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 17 – Christmas Day Conversation Rehearsal
December 19, 2020 In A Chic and Simple Christmas, Fiona Ferris discusses how she mentally prepares for her Christmas day events. She writes that when she mentally “practices” for the day, she is able to relax and enjoy it even more. One way to “practice” is to lay out one’s outfit several days before (and make sure everything is in good condition.) Another way is to visualize how you want to behave in different social events. No matter how wonderful it is to gather with loved ones, there is always one or two participants who will say or do something that tests our “calm and chic” resolve. Having a pre-thought…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 16 – Overcoming An Orange Christmas Haze
December 18, 2020 I wandered through the large Hermes store on the rue Faubourg-St-Honore this morning. It was awash in colorful scarves, leather goods and light orange everything else. It was also crowded with people. There were two lines outside the shop of people waiting to enter – one line for people with appointments and one line for those of us without appointments. I was early to meet a friend nearby, so I thought to wander through the store and enjoy the Christmas decorations for a few minutes. Within minutes my eyes were eagerly scanning the admittedly lovely displays. My fingers itched to pick up this trinket or that darling…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 15 – Savor Your Treats of the Season
December 17, 2020 Fiona Ferris encourages us to maximize those activities of the holiday season that bring us fun and joy in her book, A Chic and Simple Christmas. Today, I embraced Fiona’s idea to the hilt! I had a day of what I would call “luxe-enjoyment.” (A day filled with laid back holiday fun – no rushing about and no expensive purchases required.) All of the activities were not necessarily on “The Master Schedule” but were serendipitous additions that could jump onto a block of open time that I had kept just for such a reason. This morning, I had a laugh-out-loud 45-minute walk with a new Canadian acquaintance…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 14 – Wellness and the Holiday Frenzy
December 16, 2020 In A Chic and Simple Christmas, author Fiona Ferris stresses the idea of keeping ourselves healthy during the holiday season. In her case, she writes about how, during the holidays, she had the tendency to go to bed later, maybe miss some walks or workouts and, of course, eat Christmas sweets. These things combined with a busier holiday schedule can make anyone start feeling a bit physically worn out but also a bit mentally more fragile to the stress and bustle of the season. “Wellness” is a word that I see often in popular media. Usually accompanied by beautiful photographs of slim women wearing yoga clothes (in…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 13 – Take A Break
December 15, 2020 In Fiona Ferris’s book, A Chic and Simple Christmas, the author mentions that it’s okay to rest when one is tired. We seem to live in a time that idolizes “busy, busy, busy.” Whenever I talk to someone and ask how are they – the answer invariably is a breathless “SO busy” with words falling over themselves at top speed. I fall into this mindset quite easily, too. Today was a good example of starting out with a lovely plan for the day only to somehow get to that breathless, stressed, “busy, busy, busy” mode by mid-afternoon. (Just to be clear here, I am not an emergency…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 12 – Declutter the ‘Fridge
December 14, 2020 It’s mid-December – 10 days until Christmas Eve. There’s been a bit of drift with the investment cooking schedule. The creamy chicken chowder has moved to Wednesday. A crustless Quiche Lorraine-ish hopped onto this afternoon’s project list in its place. (I call it Lorraine-ish because there is ham and gruyere cheese in it but also there is some leftover sauteed onions and some roasted red peppers that had been hanging about in the ‘fridge for the last little while.) I make a large crustless quiche almost every other weekend. The quiche acts as a recipient for any leftover veggies and as an easy, hearty lunch during the…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 11 – Sunday Progress Report #2
December 13, 2020 This is the second weekend of Holiday Season 2020. The first weekend was a tumultuous Saturday “delayed Thanksgiving” (both happy and stressful). The Sunday of that first weekend was very quiet but full of reflection on how to better maximize the fun and minimize the chaos. This second Sunday, I can see some improvement in my own feeling of calm and order. I have the “Master Schedule” posted. (My husband has taken to calling it “The One Schedule to Rule Them All”.) With regards to ensuring that we actually do fun Christmas activities, the whole family (plus a visiting friend) enjoyed watching Christmas movies both Friday and…