The Perdue fam hopes that you had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving! We definitely had a great one here in Paris. I was honestly a little sad about missing the first big holiday, but it ended up being a good day. We had dinner with our team and I really didn’t “miss” any traditional side, except my moms broccoli casserole! We were able to watch the Macy’s parade, make a huge pot of mashed potatoes, and drink coffee all day. It was as close to perfect as perfect could be. We were able to see family a couple times throughout the day thanks to facetime so it felt as normal as it could have which I was really thankful for. Makes me think that Christmas won’t be as painful as I’m anticipating. We’ll be traveling home from Italy on that day, so we’ll see about that! 

So since being in Paris, I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job of taking advantage of what the city has to offer as far as parks, museums, and close by towns. Each weekend has been filled with something new so it’s been fun to check things off our list! This past weekend we perused the Louvre since it was free on Sunday. We spent a couple hours just slowly walking through a couple portions (you have to spend days in there to see it all) and it was fun to see things again that I’d honestly forgotten about. You see one you see em all right!? 

Last night we went to the Christmas markets on the Champs Elysees and I must say it was a little commercial for my taste. I’ve read that others are a little more quaint so I’m interested to see if those meet my expectations a little more. It was fun to see the streets lined with lights though! Christmas is just around the corner! 

To bring in some more Christmas cheer my friend Brooke and I made sugar cookie dough and let Asher make some Christmas cookies! He loved using the cutters and pushing them rather aggressively into the dough and pouring sprinkles everywhere 🙂 I can vividly remember making cookies with my Grandmother every year and I want Asher to have these memories too! 

As we approach Christmas I am hoping that I can “unplug” and really allow the meaning of Christmas to change me. To shift my focus from me, me, me to Jesus. We aren’t really exchanging gifts this year because we are taking a couple of trips over our break. We are headed to Prague and to a couple of cities in Italy! So excited to see a new place and then to return to some of my most favorite places in Italy. 

Some photos of our week!