I think the main reason I am missing Toulouse is that it is cold, dreary and not the best weather. I should probably remove Toulouse from my weather app as I can see how much warmer it is in Toulouse.

I have continued (returned to) my French conversation group and that is really great. I am happy to be able to continue to speak and learn my French. I am trying to improve between each visit so I can be more conversant every time I return to Toulouse. The group is great and is made up of a diverse and interesting group of people. As you can imagine, it is majority women but we do have a smattering of me. An is great at coming up with little exercises where we have to come up with sentences to speak. I hope that it will help me in the long run. I realize my biggest issue is vocabulary. I just do not have enough words to really hold conversations. I do have a vocabulary app which I am trying to use religiously.

I am seeing and have plans to see my various friends which is nice. It is good to see my friends and to be able to converse with them in a language that I actually speak.

A new adventure for me is that I am hosting Christmas Eve dinner for Marion, Tom, Arianna, Irene and Nana. Until my parent’s death, I would always spend Christmas at their home so we would do things with their friends. It was always fun but not like being in my own house. The first Christmas after their deaths, I spent Christmas alone in Verona, Italy. That trip was the start of petersnextchapter so you can read about it in the early blog posts.

The next Christmas, I spent it with the Zoretich family – my adopted family. I spend Christmas Eve at Tom and Marion’s house and then spent Christmas Day with the collective group at Natasha and Alex’s house. It was a fun holiday but I was a guest the whole time.

This year I wanted to contribute to the celebrations and start building some new traditions. I thought Christmas Eve would work as it is not as large a group so they could all fit in my house. Also, this way I get to use my Christmas china and other Christmas accouterments more often.

Last night I went to a shopping party at the new On store Georgetown. I thought Phil Le would be there as he is an On rep but he was busy getting ready for meetings so he could not come. It ended up being me and a bunch of young, hip and trendy influencers, I think. Not sure as they were all taking selfies and videos. It was not really my thing but it was fun to see something like that in action. I will probably go back and buy some new running shoes which I need.

I am sure life will return to Alexandria normal soon.