Famille/Amis

I can't remember a holiday season in which I have had more fun than I have had this year. Starting with Thanksmas in Ohio with my mother and brothers and their families, through a lovely long weekend with my husband and our grown children, and all the way through a full staycation week of Chicago activities, every day is full of delights to be savored. I feel very blessed to be a part of such an amazing circle of friends and family.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone beyond the people I force to read this blog actually read it, but based on the thoughtful presents I received this year -- from the bouche de Noel to the copy of Up to the Villa (a travel memoir) -- I guess there are friends and family who are enjoying my craziness. I appreciate every single one of your kind comments and gifts.

Having recently finished reading My Year in France by Julia Child and viewing Julie and Julia, I can't help recalling the scenes in both the book and the movie where Child gathers in a group of people and creates a family wherever she lives. She lost her mother early, her relationship with her own father and stepmother was strained and it appears that she was disappointed to remain childless, but she made up for this sadness in her life by being a catalyst who drew disparate people together.

Not surprisingly, her lasting friendships appear to have revolved around food and travel. The Valentine's Day scene in Julie and Julia in Paul and Julia's French dining room is poignant and felt very meaningful to me as it triggered memories of the wonderful meals I have shared with family and friends in 2009. Even when I went to the movie web site and watched the trailer, I was reminded of incredible meals from the movie and from my own life.

After reading both books and bookending the books with viewings of the movie, I heartily recommend that you do all three. The movie is good enough to stand on its own, but your enjoyment and understanding of the characters involved will be deepened by reading the books.

I came away from this holiday season with a sense of wonderment about the blessings in my life. Somehow, this very flawed individual has managed to be a part of a magical circle of people who make my life worth living. My devoted husband, my amazing children, my sweet mother, my loving brothers, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews (including darling Libbie) all bring me joy every day. And then there's my other family -- the incredible group of friends who are there for me no matter what -- and are always bearing the necessary food and wine. Like Julia, I am a brash, overly-large American who has a purpose and contentment in her life. C'est magnifique!

The lines are blurred -- my friends are my family and my family members are my friends. What more could a girl want for Christmas?

Star Stalking and Other Guilty Pleasures

Here I am again, wondering how ten days could have passed since I last wrote a post. I recently had a conversation with a group of my students about how quickly time passes; it was interesting to hear them apply mathematics to life's passage. They told me, albeit politely, that the reason I felt that time passes so quickly had to do with the percentage of my life that I experienced every year (read: you're old). They, on the other hand, are only thirteen and fourteen years old and their two weeks of winter vacation represents a significant part of their young lives. For me, these two weeks will fly by and it will barely feel as if I got any vacation.

Luckily, in the last two weeks I have finished one book and two movies that I want to share with you. I previously discussed A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle; I had some trouble finishing the book, but loved the movie. The chronological organization of the book translated well to the screen and the addition of a fully developed wife in Lindsay Duncan was a welcome addition to Mayle's vignettes.

It was with some trepidation that I pulled out the second book in the Provence series, Toujours, Provence. Although Mayle brings back characters from the first book and treats his vignettes with the same light humor that he used in A Year in Provence, this book has a feel of being recycled. I also became uncomfortable with the fact that he never refers to his wife by name; she is always "my wife" and rarely plays an important role in the stories. Perhaps that is their agreement, but I know that if I were writing a book such as this, it would be hard to keep my spouse out of the stories. We are a team and our stories star both of us! Still, Mayle is a good writer who knows how to tell a story; my students could learn from his voice. Maybe I should choose a safe story to use to teach narrative structure.

While researching Mayle I stumbled across a blog that includes several Mayle sightings and a photo. I chucked about this, because it could easily have been me taking the photo with Peter Mayle. Once my son and husband had to forcefully drag me away from a possible star-sighting in New York; I was willing to wait to see if the enormous limousine carried someone important. I actually took a photo of Barry Manilow at O'Hare airport; he was delightful and willing to pose. It was too bad that his botoxed face didn't really move when he smiled for the photo. I also just heard that my daughter's friend actually waited on Puck from Glee and engaged in conversation with him. I would have definitely been right there, but I guess I would have had to ask for an autograph for my "granddaughter." And right here, I'll put in a shout out to my a cappella chat room friends. I love that you love star-stalking, too.

I also found that my husband was right when he reminded me that Mayle wrote A Good Year, which was made into a movie starring Russell Crowe. I'm a sucker for these types of movies and thoroughly enjoyed it at least twice. That would be fun to watch this week while I'm on vacation. It got reasonably good reviews and Crowe is worth looking at for an hour and a half. For those of you who are snowed in, try A Good Year for a glimpse of a warmer climate.

I'm hopeful that there will be time for me to dig into My Life in France in the next few days. I need me some Julia before I cook up a storm this weekend. Bon Noel!