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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 5 – Fun and Holidays?
December 7, 2020 Fiona Ferris in her book, A Chic and Simple Christmas, advises us to list out what we truly enjoy about the holiday season (so that we can be sure to maximize those experiences). On a related note, Gretchen Rubin in her book, The Happiness Project, devoted an entire month to the idea of play and fun (the idea is that happiness contains a component of fun in it.) Even with Fiona and Gretchen coaching me, I’m sad to say that I’m more like Dr. Seuss’s grouchy Grinch than the Dickensian generous, exuberant Ghost of Christmas Present. I once said, with absolute sincerity, that I wished I could…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 4 – Breath
December 6, 2020 In 30 Chic Days At Home, author Fiona Ferris writes “Take the Wins.” She encourages us to focus on the good things that we are doing. When we pay attention to what we are doing well and to those things that we enjoy, we enjoy them even more and, more importantly, we do more of whatever it is. Today is the day after my family’s “Thanksgiving” celebration. (We celebrated a week later than the actual American Thanksgiving holiday because my husband was traveling over the actual day.) I detail how the day actually progressed in yesterday’s post. (Hint: it had its ups and downs, as far as…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 2 – Challenging the To-Do List
December 4, 2020 In Chapter 1 of A Chic and Simple Christmas, author Fiona Ferris writes that she wanted to feel peaceful and calm as the season progressed. One way she decided to accomplish this was to pare down her December to-do list and get as organized as possible. She also wanted to think peaceful thoughts and let those thoughts set her mood. Here in early December, my to-do list has been considerably shortened courtesy of France’s and my home nation’s (USA) recommendations to limit travel as much as possible. (France is quite strict about it.) The travel ban has both positive and negative aspects. On one hand, there will…
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A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 1 – What’s My Vision?
December 3, 2020 It is the beginning of December here in Paris during France’s second national CoVId-19 lockdown. There is quite a different feel to this holiday season than there was during last year’s Christmas & New Year’s seasons. Happily, the government just relaxed some of the “lockdown” rules this past weekend so shops are allowed to open and we residents are allowed to travel up to 20 km from our residence (with the appropriate paperwork showing proof of identity, address and reason for being out.) Although I’m delighted to be able to move about Paris again, I don’t quite have that festive, joyful holiday feeling. This has been a…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 30 – Plan Ahead
December 2, 2020 Day 30 is titled “Future plans” in 30 Chic Days at Home by Fiona Ferris. Fiona has made a list of fun things to look forward to for her near future. The spice of these fun activities gives her hope and the anticipation of interesting things to do even during a difficult year such 2020. Like Fiona says in this chapter, large fun things like big holiday trips are probably not in my immediate future. But I can think of several smaller fun things that would be fun to do over the next few months as France (hopefully) slowly emerges from our second national lockdown of the…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 29 – To Thine Own Self Be True…
December 1, 2020 Day 29 is “Be different to everyone else” in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days At Home. Fiona suggests that we step aside from the news and talk shows and popular culture for a moment (only a moment! No one-way ticket to a deserted island without internet access required for this exercise.) In this moment, Fiona encourages us to choose a more positive (and interesting) way to engage with the world around us by focusing on something other than CoVid-19 and the difficult circumstances of 2020. She gives us several other things that we could use for our thoughts and our conversations – things like what books…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 28 – Focus on the Positives
November 30, 2020 In Day 28 of 30 Chic Days At Home, author Fiona Ferris encourages us to “Take the wins” – focus on the positive things that we have done recently like being more patient or creative. The things that we might have done that would not fit under the “positive” heading, let’s shake those off and get back on track. Fiona writes that it’s more helpful to focus on the good things that we have done and give ourselves a pat on the back. That way we build momentum and keep heading in that positive direction. Beating ourselves up for whatever we might have done (like slacking off…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 26 – Sleep That Knits Up The Ravell’d Sleeve of Care…
November 28, 2020 Day 26 is titled “Take a nap” in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days At Home. She writes that she found herself more tired than usual during her home nation New Zealand’s lockdown in Spring of 2020. Interestingly, she notes that the news had reported that many people are feeling more tired than usual during this stressful period. Here in Paris, it’s day one of France’s slow walk out of a month of lockdown. In contrast to the last four weeks of sleepy quiet, my neighborhood market street and the main shopping street are hopping with masked pedestrians. Every shop seems to be decorated for the Christmas…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 24 – Easy & Thankful
November 26, 2020 Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers! I have a lot to be grateful for – and I am especially thankful for you delightful readers. Talking with you through the comments and Instagram messages is a wonderful addition to my day. Day 24 in Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days At Home, is titled “Go with the flow.” Fiona encourages us to take it easy on ourselves and follow our interests a bit – whether our interest is getting the closet in order or taking a nap. Yes, we do live in the real world and we do have responsibilities to maintain but sometimes it’s okay to take…
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A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 23 – Serenity & Changing the World
November 24, 2020 In 30 Chic Days At Home, Day 23 is titled “Create order.” Author Fiona Ferris writes about how she works at keeping her sense of inner peace and tranquility during her typical day at home when her home nation, New Zealand, was in CoVid-19 lockdown in Spring of 2020. For Fiona (and most humans,) a degree of outer order provides a calming support for a sense of inner order and serenity. Being at home with everyone in the house definitely creates more disorder as the house is being used more than is customary. Three meals a day and people and pets in all areas of the house…