Winter

It's winter and I feel like hibernating. I suppose that once we can actually see the days getting longer, I'll wake up, but right now, I'm feeling very lazy. Not at all ready for the ten days....
We're going down to Toulon in a couple of days to spend Christmas with Marguerite. That should be fun; it ususally is. We're driving down with Anne and Louis is joining us by train. We'll spend Christmas and the 26th as a "small" family and then Claire, Geoff, and Charlotte will arrive. We'll have a day all together before we head back to Paris with Louis and Anne. In Toulon, I imagine, we'll go up to the zoo on Mont Faron and also take in the view and we'll take Marguerite out for meals as much as she can bear. The others will follow on Monday and we'll all have a few days in Paris together before the English contingent returns to England. Louis and Gwen will be with us on the 29th, but then they leave for New York on the 30th.
We've got a day at Disneyland on the schedule and New Year's Eve we've got tickets for "The Lion King"! I've gotten as far as thinking about what we're going to eat and got stalled at that point -- next Monday I'm going to have to get some food in the house.
Yesterday, I stripped all the old sealing joints in the shower and replaced with new silicon. The shower looks much nicer, at last. Ready for guests. Paul was great, doing the clean up.
I also managed to take the time to get the photos from Australia on to the card in the photo frame.
After this, I'll do our New Year's greetings.
I've managed to put the files I've already made of Louette's papers (about 100 scanned letters and such) on to my wiki and hope that Tony and Jon will help out by adding their comments, and perhaps, correcting the order they're in. Next year, I promise to do more on this project. The suitcase the rest of the letters are in happens to be blocked by some of the stuff that either Louis or Claire has stored with us. Louis' stuff should be out soon, when the work on their apartment is done. Paul and I are going to try to get rid of a little bit each month -- easier said than done.
I haven't been on a hike in a long while. I want to go and then something comes up on a Wednesday and I can't, or it's not a walk for me. The weather doesn't help.
A bit over two weeks ago was the AAWE bazaar. I always love that. It's tiring, but I get to see some friends that I only ever see at the bazaar. I didn't think we had as nice used clothing or toys for sale as we usually have. I'm already setting aside next year's offerings -- just have to find somewhere to put the stuff. I ended up buying two books that I realized too late I had already read -- probably my own donations. Happens every year!
Emma called, at last. She and Laurent were stopping in Singapore on their way to Thailand. On Facebook, today, Laurent says they'll be in Phuket by this evening. It's strange following them via Facebook. It's not enough. They had a run-in with corrupt police in Bali. Seems they did not get international drivers' licenses and they got fined for it, but the fine, paid in cash most likely went straight into the cop's pocket.

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Pas de grandes nouvelles ces dernières semaines.
Nous attendons les prochains jours avec impatience. Nous allons à Toulon pour voir Marguerite pour les fêtes de Noël. Anne vient avec nous et Louis nous rejoindra en train. Après Noël, Claire, Geoff, et Charlotte arriveront. Nous aurons une journée tous ensemble avant de remonter à Paris. Les Husaunndee suiveront le jour suivant. Ce qui me donne un jour pour faire les courses.
Nous avons des places pour voir "Le Roi Lion" pour le reveillon du Nouvel An et des billets pour passer une journée à Disneyland. Louis et Gwen partent à New York le 30 pour une semaine.
Emma nous a donné des nouvelles la semaine dernière depuis Singapore en route vers le Thaïlande. Aujourd'hui, sur Facebook, Laurant dit qu'ils arrivaient à Phuket ce soir.