Christmas Eve and Christmas chez ma mere!!

Not to be forgotten is the reason for which I went home. CHRISTMAS!!!!

A few days before Christmas, we celebrated Russell's birthday, and since we were in the opening presents kind of mood, we opened our Christmas pajamas that our mother gives us every year!

This year, she gave us LSU pajama bottoms. And even though I'm not the hugest LSU fan, I was psyched. Unfortunately, they ended up being just a little bit too small.

This year, we had a fairly atypical Christmas Eve. Usually, we put out luminaries right before it starts getting dark. Unfortunately, our neighborhood committee decided to put an end to the luminaries a year or two ago. My sister and I are seriously devastated about this. So, this year, instead, we had our HUGE Christmas dinner instead. Tina made up the most DELICIOUS meal with sweet potatoes and brocolli and stuffed squash and, really, everything you could dream of in a Christmas dinner. By the time it was time for dessert, we were all too stuffed to even think about it.

After our delicious dinner, we headed over to our Aunt Betty's house for her annual Christmas party. As usual, it was fantastic! Parker, my cousin Monica's son, saw Santa Clause approaching right when we got there, so they had to leave IMMEDIATELY. After all, they needed to get home before Santa arrived. It was very cute, watching him run back and forth between Monica and the door, screaming "Santa, momma, Santa! We have to leave now!!"
When we left, Aunt Betty gave us clementines picked from her trees. They were delicious!

After Aunt Betty's, we headed out to our Mom's house, where she was still busy wrapping up a storm. It was very late, and we had to sleep in her room, which meant we had to forgo our annual Christmas movie, the Magic Snowman. For those of you that have not heard of it, it is THE best Christmas movie ever, and I absolutely highly recommend it to EVERYONE! Go watch it! Now! Even though it's not Christmas.

The next morning, IT WAS CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



As usual, Kristen and I woke up extraordinarily early and exchanged presents just between us before making everyone else get up and celebrate!


I got some fabulous presents from here:
-a really cool pen that her friend made that apparently took her several hours to make!
-a bee t-shirt
-bee pajama pants
-some awesome rain boots
-some earrings she made herself
-an A American Eagle t-shirt that was "made just for me"
-some Melt shaving cream that I love!
-wonderfully delicious smelling Melt fizzy bath balls

I think that's it. I absolutely love them all, and I hope she loves hers as well.

The the whole gang came out, and Kristen and I exchanged presents with Russell, Shawn, and Miranda before the opening of the stocking began.
I got the coolest Labyrinth shirt from Shawn, and from Russell and Miranda, I got this cool bag that fed a child in Africa for a year. In the bag, there were three really awesome books on Japan that I absolutely can't WAIT to read. Along with that, there was the coolest present of Christmas.



Yes, that's it, right there around my neck. It's a smoke detector decorated by Russell and Miranda and turned into an anti-smoking necklace. The theoretically will go off if ever anyone is smoking around me. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?


Should I be offended that Kristen gets bunny ears, and I don't? Or do we think mine are just hidden?

So then we opened our stockings and our Mom/Santa presents, and Mom opened her presents, and good times were had all around. Kristen and I gave mom and ipod Nano with a docking station, and I think she loved it. We also both separately gave her lots of fun presents that she seemed to love!

As for me, I got the awesomest presents of all!

I got this super cool new jacket, that I am wearing in the picture with Kristen and Russell up above. I got a new pink Dell Studio laptop, which I absolutely NEEDED! My old laptop is in the process of dying a slow and painful death.
Kristen and I got matching outfits that we were supposed to wear for New Year's Eve. Only my flight was canceled, so I unfortunately ended up being in an airplane on New Year's Eve. So I wore mine to celebrate Christmas with Guillaume.


How cute are we?


I also got the coolest Juicy Couture towel.
Can you tell that this was an awesome Christmas for me?



Or rather, can you tell that this was an awesome Christmas for everyone?

Afterwards, we had a delicious Christmas breakfast that Mom had made before heading out to our Dad's house to celebrate Christmas there.
And since this post is already RIDICULOUSLY long, THAT will be a post for next time.
Until then,. . .!!!!

All pictures stolen from my dear sister Kristen.

Rockin' It Out Louisiana Style

After my huge ordeal, I don't think I had EVER been happier in my life to be home. For serious.

The first thing I did upon waking up in the morning was to go through all of the books that had arrived at my mom's house that I had won in contests or that had been sent to me by publishers. If you're interested, you can check out the blog post about that in Brizmus Blogs Books.

Then I explored my Mom's new house, which was just BEAUTIFUL! Apparently, she had done a ton of work, and you could so tell as the house was just SO HER!


I got to spend several days lounging around reading, doing next to nothing. It was fantabulous! I also got all of the rest of my Christmas shopping done and presents wrapped and it was really just fantastic! :-) And my grandparents came in, and I got to beat them at Scrabble! Yay! I am TERRIBLE at Scrabble - I was therefore sort-of shocked about the whole winning thing. And I got to hang out with Russell and Miranda, who are both living in Pineville now, and it was SO great to get to spend time with my little bromeo (wow, haven't used that word in AGES, since we lived in Holiday Park).

Then Kristen finally arrived (YAY!!!! Always so much fun to see my sister!! :-) ), and with my Mom, we took a trip up to Natchitoches to see the Christmas lights (I almost just typed Kristen lights), which were absolutely beautifully amazing and wonderful!

I hadn't been to see the lights since high school, since I lived in Natchitoches, and I had these amazing memories about how awesome they are. Kristen was afraid that we were maybe going to be disappointed, but we absolutely weren't. They were just AMAZING!!!!


We met this very nice man who reminded us of Charles Martin (our uncle), who was so nice to take some pictures of the three of us. He was so professional about it that we thought he must be a photographer for a living or something. He informed us that he was, indeed a photographer by profession. A photographer of dead people. He was happy to have some living subjects, he said. :-P Interesting. . .


We found a sled, and Kristen and I just HAD to have a picture in it, as we have on of us when we were very little sitting in a very similar sled (if, I am not mistaken, also in Natchitoches at the lights). I wish I had the old picture to scan and put next to this one.

Anyhow, our trip to Natchitoches was a success - we had SO much fun all hanging out together - even if dinner was not a success. All of the restaurants were closed by the time we finally got around to looking for one. Luckily, I had some plain, cold (sauceless) spaghetti in a Ziploc bag, and we munched on it on the way home so that we weren't too hungry.

After Natchitoches, it was time for CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be sure to check back soon! :-)

The Long Journey Home

So, finally, here I am, and it's update time!! (I know this is a long entry, but it''s a funny story, if you want to read it!)

As most of you know, I went home to Louisiana for the Christmas holidays, and I had an absolutely FABULOUS time!!!! When I finally got there. Which was not an easy task.

I arrived in Houston a little bit early (what a shocker, right?), and so I was sitting at the gate, waiting for my flight to Alexandria, which was supposed to leave in 5 minutes, when they announced something terrible: my flight was being canceled due to weather. What weather, I wondered? Sure, it was rainy and a little bit foggy, but I had numerous times taken off in weather far worse than that.

Anyhow, so they put me on the next flight out, and while I was very tired and jet lagged, I couldn't complain - I was just excited to be going home. And then they announced that my next flight was canceled because they had no flight attendants. And the flight after that was full, so I got them to put me on it on standby and to confirm me on a seat on the flight after that. Fine, no problem.

I didn't make the standby. The flight took off. They somehow canceled my next reservation, but because the flight attendant was nice, she managed to get me on the flight. After sitting in the runway for about half an hour, they announced that there was too much fog in Alexandria, and the flight was canceled. We got out of the plane to discover that the flight after that, the last flight of the day, was also canceled.

By this point in time, it was about 3 in the morning in France, I hadn't slept at all on the plane, they weren't going to be paying for a hotel (since the flights had been canceled for weather), and really, I was just ready to get home. So, I decided to cancel the last leg of my flight and drive.

My mom was not happy. It was rainy and foggy, she said (for the record, this was an understatement - it was so foggy that you couldn't see a foot in front of you and the rains were hurricane torrential), and I was jet-lagged and tired (also an understatement). Still, she was arranging a car for me, when a very nice man, who had been on all of my canceled flights with me, asked me what I was doing.
He got excited about the idea of driving, and since he already had a car reserved in Alexandria, got the reservation changed to Houston so that we could drive together.

My mom, of course, freaked out (she had recently seen the movie Taken), and interrogated him as if we were in high school and it was my prom date. She even went so far as to ask if she could call his wife (which she luckily did not do). She wanted to talk about where he was from and where he went to school and where he lived and what he did for a living and any other possible question she could think of. By the end of it all, we knew his entire life story. Poor guy, right?

He then proceeded to drive me all the way home. I guess he could tell that it was probably not a smart idea to let me drive, given how delusionaly tired I was. So he drove, and every time I offered to drive, he said it was no big deal and just kept driving. I think he was just happy to be getting there on time (he was headed to Marksville for work) and to have someone to drive in the car with him, to keep him company.


I seriously don't think I could have gotten any luckier. So I got home at about 3 or 4 in the morning, then somehow woke up at 8 the next morning (ohhhh, jet lag), and I don't think I have ever in my life been more grateful to anyone than I was to Jason. Than I am to Jason, I should say.

So anyhow, my attempt at getting home was, well,. . .interesting. But I made it!

Stay tuned, because next time (which will be soon), I'll start writing about being home and Christmas!!!!

Note: I borrowed the pictures from random sites without permission. Also, the rain and fog pictures are NOTHING compared to what it was actually like.

A White January?

So Wednesday morning, while I was at work in Antony, it started snowing. And when it finished snowing, there was a beautiful sheet of white covering EVERYTHING. It was SO gorgeous! Nothing like the beauty of Montreal, but still, I was in snow lover's heaven. :-) And I was SO excited to get back to Paris and get my camera to take a picture of the beautiful snow. After all, if it was white in Antony, which is literally, like, 2 seconds from Paris, it had to be beautiful white in Paris, right? Wrong. It was disgusting and gray and not really snow-covered at all.

So, alas, no picture.

Then I woke up yesterday morning and this morning and looked out my window, and everything was white. But it wasn't a pretty, beautiful white like in Antony. It was a disgusting, grayish dirty white snow.

So, still, no picture. :-(

Anyhow, I've got tons of updating to do about the Christmas holidays, but that won't happen today. I didn't really take any pictures, so I'm going to try to wait for Kristen to get hers to me (hint, hint, hint - KRISTEN!!). Be looking for a big update soon, though!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, everyone!

It's Thanksgiving, and even though I am living in France right now, I have decided to celebrate. I have a vegan pumpkin cheezcake in the oven and two artichokes on the stove. My sister and I tend to eat artichokes every Thanksgiving together. And so even though she's not here with me, I'm having one in her honor. With margarine and nutritional yeast! YUM! Aside from that, I'm not really doing anything special. In the past, when I was teaching English, we made turkey hands, and I made my students write something they were thankful for in each finger. That really reminded me that it was Thanksgiving, and that Thanksgiving is special. This year, I am jobless (:-( ) and broke, so I've got to find ways to remind myself.
I hope all of you guys in the U S of A are having a fantastic time with your friends and family!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!
Just try to tell me you don't feel sorry for that poor turkey.

And since it's Thanksgiving, I've been reading some great lists of things that other people are thankful for. I decided that I needed to make a list of 10 things of my own.
So, what am I thankful for this year?

I AM THANKFUL FOR:
1)The fact that there are more and more vegans out there every year meaning that more and more turkeys survive this holiday.

2)All of my friends and family who love me and care about me (and whom I love and care about) and who support me through all of the crazy things I decide to do, be it write a novel in 30 days or move to Japan for 9 months (Normally, this will be happening soon) without a job or a friend in sight. (And who take care of my cat, Zedster, while I am off doing said crazy things.)

3)Guillaume aka the greatest, most wonderful boyfriend a girl could ever ask for.

4)Discovering the book blogging community and all of the wonderful people in it.

5)The store Thanksgiving, in the Marais, which, I am convinced, is the ONLY place in all of Paris where you can buy grits and canned pumpkin. Even if they are ridiculously expensive.

6)Organic farmers.

7)Starbucks venti soy classic hot chocolate with peppermint syrup and no whipped cream.

8)My stuffed dog, Eva, who has lived with me through thick and thin since I was 4 years old, who was there for me when my real dog, Eva, a Brittany Spaniel, died. I had had her and loved her since I was 7.

9)Courage and the odd places in which I often find it lurking.

10)And, of course, no list of things I am thankful for would be complete without BOOKS!!!! I will put being able to see and knowing how to read along with this one as well.

X I am cross-posting this to Brizmus Blogs Books. X

Paris Vegan Day

I am RIDICULOUSLY excited!!!! Why, you might ask?
Well, first I am excited because tomorrow is my three year anniversary with Guillaume. That's right - THREE years!!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Audrey and Guillaume!!

Paris, because sometimes it can be nice, has decided to do something to help us celebrate. TOMORROW is Paris Vegan Day. I know, I know - it sounds crazy. A vegan day. In Paris, France. But it's true, and it looks like it is going to be MEGA fun!!!!

There are going to be food demonstrations and cooking lessons. I'm especially excited about the demonstration "Dix façons de remplacer l’œuf" = 10 ways to replace eggs. I've been lazy lately and just using a mixture of silken tofu and ground flax seeds, instead of actually picking something that would actually be good for the recipe. So this will be good for me.

Plus, there's going to be a skincare demonstration by Lush!! Do you hear me squealing with excitement? Well, I absolutely am! I love Lush and all of their wonderful vegan products!

There's also going to be a vegan pizza party at the end of the day. Can you say AWESOME?!? I will DEFINITELY be hitting that up! I love me some vegan pizza, even moe so because I actually hated pizza before becoming a vegan - so now I get to love it all the more.

Anyhow, if you're in the area, I hope you'll be hitting it up!!

HAPPY PARIS VEGAN DAY!!!!

Lights, Camera, Action

I just realized that I never posted this video in here. I'm part of a Philips forum, and there was a video contest. We had to make a video saying why we loved our favorite Philips product that we own. Or why we can't live without a Philips product that we don't own.

I decided to test my video making skills for the very first time, and despite the fact that my Windows Movie Maker has a bug that made this take hours and hours on end to put together, and despite the fact that I only had my crappy digital camera to film with, and despite the fact that I know nothing about cutting and putting videos together,. . .well, despite nothing. It turned out badly.

Still, it won me third place!!!!
The other videos weren't that fantastic, either.
Enjoy! and let me know what you think.

And a long time ago, I promised you guys a New Kids on the Block music video. It's coming soon, really it is. . . I just have to find the guts to work with Windows Movie Maker again. Glah!

Also, you guys perhaps remember last November,. . .when I was participating in NaNoWriMo. I kept you updated pretty regularly.



Well, I'm participating again this year, and I'm actually writing my life story. It didn't start off that way, but somehow that's what it's turned into. I started off with a bang, but for the past week, I have had trouble making myself write at all. Apparently the years of my life between 5th and 8th grade are just, well, boring. And tragic. Uninteresting and yet I still don't want to have to dredge up all the horrible memories that I had during that time period. I'm at 35,700 words despite the fact that I can't have written more than 5000 words in the past two weeks.

Aside from that, sorry that I haven't updated in AGES. I've been sort of busy working on Brizmus Blogs Books and writing my NaNoWriMo novel. Before that, I was working on another novel, to which I actually find myself very attached, that I had to set aside for NaNoWriMo. Still, I'll try to update more often. :-)

Ooh, and I've also been working on veganizing all of the recipes in "Chocolate: A Love Story," the chocolate cookbook from Max Brenner, the bald chocolate man. It's a project that I'm very excited about!!!! So far I've made some incredibly delicious chocolatey scrumptiousness! I'll be posting about it in Brizmus Blogs Books. Yay!

Hope everyone is well! Let me know what you think of the video!