The best Christmas present - Time

Christmas is pretty low-key in France and it wouldn’t be too difficult to ignore it altogether. The French eat their ‘feast’ meal on the evening of the 24^th and only have one day off work. The concept of Boxing Day does not exist, by the 26^th everything has returned to normal and the shops are open again. For us, this is one of the attractions of France, although I have seen many FB posts on some expat French groups bemoaning the lack of festive spirit. We have long since passed the stage of exchanging pointless presents with each other, but may use Christmas as an excuse for a non-essential joint treat – this year it was a proper cast-iron théière to make tissanes.

I’d planned to write a blog post about our first vegetarian Christmas dinner, with the obligatory photograph of course. I’d tracked down an old recipe for vegetarian Christmas loaf with chilli cranberry sauce that I last made in about 1996. The ingredients were fairly straightforward: lentils, nuts, breadcrumbs, vegetables and the inevitable mushrooms; all readily available in Intermarche. I even found some cranberries in Aldi. So I was already prepared, however, when it actually came to the 25^th neither of us actually fancied eating ‘Christmas dinner’ and I received a request for ‘something without mushrooms’… I think he was feeling a bit mushroomed-out after my experiments in the last few weeks with the goulash, stroganoff and daube. So, we had a very simple Christmas meal comprising all our favourite ingredients: avocado starter, asparagus risotto (a store cupboard meal!!) and a bought chocolate buche de noel. We did have a good bottle of Chablis and some Belgian handmade chocolates too. A simple, fairly normal meal. No hangover; no indigestion.

Simplicity has been the motive of this holiday, and I can call it a holiday for once. I’ve given myself the best Christmas present possible – time. Looking back, I don’t think I have actually had a ‘day off’ for about two and a half years. When I moved to France in August 2013 I left a full time job on Friday afternoon, travelled the next day and on Sunday registered and started my business in France. I think the phrase is ‘hit the ground running’. Since then, not a day has gone by when I have not replied to emails, sent out quotes, been on social media or just simply been editing and proofreading 1000s of words. The words ‘day off’ might be pencilled in the diary, but at some time I’ll have been in the office.

A beautiful sunrise over the village this morning

 

This year I was working to a Christmas Eve deadline to return an edited document. Once I’d pressed SEND to return the completed files to the client, I turned off the computer, tidied up my desk and left my office for three whole days. At first I was a bit restless, after all I only have to go upstairs to go to work. I kept picking up my phone to check for emails, or checking into FB and Twitter to see what people were up to. However, once I’d got over the guilt about not working I started to relax and enjoy not working. I finished reading a French novel that had been on the bedside table for a few weeks, watched a few You Tube videos about some new interesting (non-work) topics and enjoyed a Netflix boxed set-fest of the French crime thriller, Les Temoins (Witnesses). I did go back to the computer for a browse on Amazon when we were deciding how to spend a Christmas voucher – four real, paper books to share, but I did manage to have a complete break from working.

I’m so glad that I allowed myself to take a break and just enjoy doing not a great deal; to rest and re-charge the batteries. I’m sure that one thing that encouraged me to relax is a new mindfulness app I have been trying: Headspace. Mindfulness –  sometimes a euphemism for meditation – had always been on my moving towards minimalism to-do list, but there never really seemed to be time to learn the techniques. Now I’ve found that simply re-arranging the morning routine slightly gives me ten minutes to get into the right frame of mind for the challenges of the day ahead.