Joyeux Noel in Paris

We have come to refer to 2011 as a “trying year,” and were rather relieved to see it come to an end.  We experienced several significant disappointments last year, all the more frustrating because they were beyond our control.  So we decided to seize control of our holiday, take advantage of a slow period at work, and travel to Paris for Christmas.  We had never experienced Christmas without spending time with either (and often both) sides of our family before, and knew it would be a little strange.  But we also knew that a vacation adventure somewhere new to us, far away and beautiful would be just what our little family of two needed to close out the year.  So, with an abundance of redeemed American Express points, flight upgrades from an extremely generous friend, a corporate rate at a fancy hotel, and the blessing of supportive and understanding family members, we were off.  (Warning, if you don’t particularly enjoy looking at other people’s vacation photos (a ridiculous amount of them) and hearing about their trip (ad nauseum) then this will be a trying post for you and you should move along to something else on the Internet.  We’ll be back to regular recipe posting in a few days.)

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