Memories/Cramming, Part II

I really thought I was going to be able to get all of the memorable events from July 2018 to December 2019 in my last post. Obviously that didn’t happen. We’ll see how wordy and over-sharey I get in this one. To be honest, I’m not sure how much I even like this post. It may just be a self-indulgent waste of time – for you and me! It’s just a ton of photos of our last year before leaving, and even though it is helping me sort through these memories and organize it all in my head, it isn’t exactly how I envisioned sharing about this time. Don’t get me wrong – I love all of these photos, but I’m thinking this might be more like a torturous slide show for you patient souls who are trying to read this. I do promise to get on with the rest of this story and to the actual living in France part!

So anyway.. .I’ll pick up where I left off last time – but please, feel free to bypass it all! It certainly won’t hurt my feelings and it’s not like I’ll ever know if you skip the whole thing!

December 2018, Christmas

This is really where all of “the last times” really started. I know, I know…..I said that before, but it’s true. In that last year at home, it was constantly on my mind – those “last times”. But even during all of those “last times”, I was so preoccupied with our plans and thinking about what our life in France would be like.

As I mentioned before, our family was all so encouraging about our pending move, except maybe our most outspoken grandson, Jake, who could always express his feelings. He said to me, “oh great, our last Christmas Eve together”. He said a lot of things like that during that last year. It really tugged at my heart – still does. I have a huge lump in my throat right now just thinking about this. I can’t express how much I adore this kid…..his candor and raw honesty gets me every time. I love that about him…so much. Oy vey…..I better move on before I dissolve into a puddle of tears.

In my adult life, I had a love/hate relationship with Christmas. It was fun for me in the earlier days when the kids were younger. I loved being able to create our own traditions after our Haley was born and build on the traditions from my own childhood. I loved seeing the excitement of Christmas through the eyes of the kids. But, as time went on, the senseless stressors, the obligations, the commercialization of it all often made it all seem more like a chore.

However, as our kids grew up and started their own families, the Christmas celebrations began to hold special meaning for me again. We started new traditions. We had wonderful family Christmas Eves with the whole gang (except for our TexBecks – our kids who live in Texas). I also got to hold on to my “baby” Haley for far longer that I ever thought I could. She would spend the night Christmas Eve so we could still have little kid Christmas morning while our “big kids” had their Christmas mornings with their own families. We loved being able to hang on to the “little kid” traditions of Christmas, but with a mellow and relaxed adult spin on it. We would wake up late (with Haley in her new Christmas jammies) and have coffee and open our presents. Then we’d have our traditional lox and bagels and watch a favorite movie together – something like Young Frankenstein or My Favorite Year. It was awesome – I loved our hybrid kid/grownup Christmases. Of course I’m so sad that this tradition with Haley ended with our move, but I do know it was good for Haley to move on and create traditions in her own adulthood.

We really tried to enjoy all of the good things about Christmas that year……really take it all in, and we did. (Somehow I must have forgotten to take more family photos, but we did have a good time!).

Before I move on to the glut of photos, I have one more thought about Christmas – from the present day. It’s feeling a bit surreal as I’m writing and steeping in the memories of Christmas 2018 and at the same time preparing for Christmas Present. I’m feeling quite melancholy as I’m unpacking my ornaments I brought from home – they are beloved and so familiar, yet they don’t seem to belong here. We have yet to figure out what Christmas really is to us here in our French home. It’s all so completely different now and we’re still finding our way.

Winter 2019

The start of our last year in our home. We spent as much time as we could with family and friends. I was definitely feeling how fast time was moving along. Each visit and event seemed more poignant than ever. I just tried to hold on to every precious minute.

Spring 2019

Spring was lovely with a bunch of memorable times. It’s funny, because I didn’t really mark the time by the seasons when I lived in temperate San Diego. The change of seasons definitely has much more significance now that I live in France.

Summer 2019

Our last Summer in the US. A very busy and wonderful time…..enjoying our most precious people and making the most of every minute. There’s going to be A LOT of photos in this section!

In June, we made a trip to North Carolina to celebrate my nephew Curren’s high school graduation. I don’t have many photos of Curren’s big day because I got sick as a dog – pretty sure with food poisoning and I was convinced I was going to die. I must have been really stressed out, because I also got a lovely reoccurrence of plantar fasciitis to add to the fun! I was a hot damn mess! I was sad to miss Curren’s big day, but at least Skip and Haley were able to go cheer him on.

That same weekend my Mom threw a big birthday party for my Nana, my Aunt Sue and me. Our birthdays all fall within a few days of each other and it was always so special to me that our birthdays were so close together. It was also an extraordinary occasion that brought all eight of my Nana’s children together and a lot of her grandchildren and great grandchildren too. This was such a special time to be all together since my Aunt Sue had been battling cancer for quite some time by then. We didn’t know at the time (but I think my Mom had a premonition) that this would be Sue’s last earthly birthday. It was a truly memorable celebration and I’m so grateful that my Mom was so insistent on making it happen.

We celebrated our last 4th of July in Point Loma/La Playa. La Playa is the best place to celebrate the 4th! I hadn’t felt particularly patriotic for a while, but it was always a fun family celebration – to eat a lot and enjoy the fireworks from our condo. Ever since we moved to Point Loma in 2000, we got to enjoy the best views of the fireworks. It’s weird now to be in France where we often forget about the American holidays – out of sight, out of mind, I guess. But now we have Bastille Day with fireworks pretty much right outside our windows again.

Another epic event that Summer was when our whole family – all 16 of us – went to Kauai. Kauai was – and is – one of my most favorite places on Earth. It was so special to be able to share it with the whole gang – an amazing feat for us all to be together at the same time, in such a magnificent place. We had lots of laughs, lots of boisterous game nights, great food, LOTS of drinks and we even got to celebrate Beckett’s 4th birthday all together. I think we’d all agreed it was a pretty amazing vacation.

I think I’ll end it here for now. The Fall was really when things started heating up. So much to do for all of the final preparations……dealing with all of the administrative stuff, our house, packing, prepping for Parker’s part of the trip, the goodbyes, etc., etc, etc. It was really all coming down to it. I’ll write more about that later……give us all a rest for now!

As always, I’ll thank you again for reading my blog. You are a patient and hardy bunch! Lot’s of love to you all!

❤️ Lisa