Let's do it again next year!

So when I first landed back in France, the idea of blogging left me feeling a bit like this:

But NOW!  I feel like THIS:

Not to be too draconian about it, but my head is all mixed up in about ninety million different ways right now, and the next few months will have to involve some serious reflection.  But as tempting as it is to lie around reflecting like crazy all day, there's a whole continent out there to cruise!  And whole drinks to be drunk!  And entire lists of decisions to be perpetually avoided!! I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.  Or maybe that's just because I've been wearing pajamas for the last eighteen hours.  

I'm tempted to start rambling straight out of the gate, but instead I will devote this post to raving about the holidays.  Because they were exceedingly cool!   And now that I have my camera back (tiny miracle), I have proof. 

Behold, a list of the Top Six (PG) Moments of the 2008/9 Holidays!

6.  Christmas Day, with all of the food and cocktails and gifts and affectionate teasing we could handle.  

Below: the only word for this is MMMMMMMMMMMM.

That picture illustrates what Christmas is about: wrapping paper, stockings, and pine needles scattered everywhere, and us in the middle, savoring it all.  Calm in the midst of chaos.  And a cat to make sure everything is torn into small enough pieces.

And, of course, pugs.

5.  New Years' Eve party with a handful of nutty aunts and cousins and one nutty uncle!

Instructions: (1) wear as many insane clothes and as much makeup as possible.  (2) Dance like a fiend in the living room, especially whenever ABBA is played (ignore self-conscious warnings left over from high school that warn against dancing of any kind, especially to ABBA).

4.  Uncle Jim's world-famous (or at least Hancock-famous) waffles. 

If there's one picture in the world right now that I could somehow instantly upload into reality, it would be this one!  Or maybe it would be that picture of Clive Owen on the cover of Details...

Um.  I'll be right back.  After a cold shower.  

3. Makeover by my favourite person under five feet tall:

2. More puppies, kitties and babies than I could handle!  

The prince among them all:

In France, I spend all of my time among the adolescent and 20-something crowd, not a baby for miles.  And the closest I ever get to a pet is when I walk that stretch of sidewalk down by the grocery store, where some kind of massive canine creature leaves equally massive piles of slippery, pea-coloured excrement. I think a vet might be needed.  A vet, and an factory-strength sandblaster to clean a path from my dorm to my food supply.

Jen's cat Annie, who doesn't let being entirely toothless slow her down:

Oh my gosh!  A baby and a dog together in the same place!  I'm amazed I managed to look at the camera long enough for that picture to be taken.  

Lucky for me, two of my fellow bridesmaids in Jen & Mark's wedding were toting around little tiny people the whole weekend, which meant lots of cuddle time for the rest of us.  Above is Seema's baby girl Maya, and below is Sharon's lil' dude Wyatt, who partied harder and looked better than any of us ever did.

1. WEDDING OF THE MILLENIUM, OR POSSIBLY EVEN THE BILLENNIUM (I looked it up)

Facebook is groaning under the weight of about a zillion different Jen & Mark wedding albums, which doesn't even include the professional shots, still on their way.  What you see here is just a tiny random sample of my favourites....

Above picture: I am trying to peel away one of the kleenexes I strategically hid beneath the bouquet.  I think God invented waterproof mascara in anticipation of J&M's wedding.

Below, the bridesmaids' contribution to the reception speeches: selections from one of the most authoritative, respected textbooks of its kind.

Above: Basia and I trying to look sassy.  Her performance during Jen & Mark's ceremony would have reduced the most stone-hearted existentialist to a pile of weeping goo on the church floor.  Jen came down the aisle to Basia playing the Velvet Underground's "I Found A Reason," and even just typing that gives me shivers.  

Dawson!  And Megan!  On a limo bus without a washroom, trying to hold all that pee inside after spending hours at the open bar.  Can you see the strained look behind our smiles?

Despite the pee scenario, that limo bus was hella fun.  It felt like we were in an alternate universe, where the music was loud and the dancing kind of insane, instead of somewhere on the highway between Whitby and Toronto.

It was perfect.