Wow! I have been invited to spend the week after Christmas in France! Imagine! Christmas in Paris!!! I can still hardly believe it! The idea came up last minute, and then everything which was involved worked out so miraculously it was amazing. Here's the story:
Many of you probably remember Audrey or at least knew that we had a foreign exchange student from France for a year from 2005-2006. Then, she came back for a surprise visit for John's 40th birthday last year, Oct. 2007. Going to France and visiting Audrey has been very high on Kendra's "To Do in the Near Future" list. She happened to be talking to me about it and how it might work out for her next summer when she gets her vacation days, when she popped up with, "I sure wish you guys could come and meet me there!" I regretfully had to tell her that there was no way we would be able to afford traveling to France next year since we're working hard to pay on John's school loans. She was disappointed but still wanted me to check into airfare for her.
It was quite expensive in Aug/Sept, so she asked me to check out December break (2009). On a fluke, I first checked out airfare for this Dec, and was shocked at the great deals! (Maybe from the drop in gas right now?) Anyway, Kendra's next proposal was, "Since this is my chance of a lifetime to do this, and I want you with me, I want you to come as my guest if we can get dates to work out for you, me, and Audrey." Wow! Well, John happened to pop in at home over his lunch break just as Kendra was saying this and he very generously told me he would take care of the children over his school break if things worked out for me to go. Of course, no moss ever grows under Kendra, so she had us calling Audrey right then. And it just happened to be a weekend that we were calling on, and it just happened to be one of the weekends Audrey was home...and then, it so happened that we woke Audrey up! But after she got her bearings she was sooooo excited! And the result of the call? She would be on break at that time, could pick us up from the airport, take us to her home, and then show us around France for all but the last day we would be there. Then, she'd have to go back to school. Wow! My head was spinning it was happening so fast! But Kendra's logic was: I'm going anyway, I want you to go, there are great deals right now, so if it works out with all our schedules, there's no reason not to! Well, no arguing there! Kendra then just needed to get approved the days off at work (which, the way the system works, she actually doesn't have to take vacation days for!) After that, John helped search around for the absolutely best deals, and we are now booked to arrive in Paris on Monday, Dec 29, and leaving for home on Tuesday, Jan 6th. Then, a few days after we got our tickets, we checked back with the airlines and discovered that the flights are all much more expensive now!
Audrey says they will have Christmas leftovers, so we will "celebrate" Christmas together. And then, I don't know what they do in France for New Year's, but I guess I'll find out! I'm so excited I can't believe it! France is one of the places I've always wanted to go, but never really thought it'd happen.
6 comments:
John, Wanda, James, Jesse and Joy:
I don't know if my other comment got posted so I will try again. I enjoyed seeing your updates. I think of you often. I hope you have a good Christmas in Korea. Let me know what you get to eat for Christmas. I hope it isn't dog again. Even camel or donkey would be better than that.
God Bless you all.
Ron Messner
Glad you tried again, since your first comment doesn't appear to have gone through! It is good to hear from you. We're glad you are reading our blog! We will definitely let you know what we have for Christmas dinner...but I don't think it will be anything as exotic as camel or donkey! And, the dog soup seems to be a hot weather thing, so I guess we won't be having ony of that either, unfortunately! What will you have? Pig or cow or birds?
I like the winter look Wanda, but have to say that Jingle Cats didn't do anything for me! :-)
And somehow, nothing sounds too appetizing when you think of it in it's original form, but I have to agree with Ron - still better than dog!
Hope you have a great trip. Thanks for calling, it was great to talk to you.
Merry Christmas and Happy New year!!
Hol
Have fun in Paris! Sounds like a once in a life time opportunity so I'm glad it's working out for you to go! We'll be waiting to read the full report when you return!
Thanks, Becky! I'm very excited to go! It's only 16 more days...count-down has started! I see that there is an option to add a slide show, so I'd like to figure that out once I get back. Have you done those before? Any tips?
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