Yes, last year my daughter, Samantha, and I baked and decorated the Holiday sugar cookies shown on the above featured page. We even took plates of them to our neighbors, especially to the neighbors who have college age sons! They were tasty, just did not lean too strongly on the perfect looking scale. Yet, they got a point or two for being HOMEMADE.

The photo, just above, shows a natural bag from BaoBab (10 rue du Marche), a shop in the Old Town of Nice.

https://www.facebook.com/Baobab.Sylvie.Charit

When decorating the home, last year, I used the bag to contain some of Samantha’s ornaments. One of her businesses, note•ify, has been selling these for years–wholesale and retail–sometimes hundreds of them with city landmarks on them. Yes, HOMEMADE. (www.noteify.com)

Approximately, 30 years ago, I acted as general contractor and interior designer on our home project in the Sonoma Valley. The project went on for a year. Since it was a fairly large home we lived in it while it was under construction, albeit very makeshift, with much of our goods/furnishings stored, including our Christmas decorations. So I asked each contractor to decorate a glass bulb for our tree. Eventually, most of the bulbs didn’t survive the years, but the above three that I decorated somehow made it–HOMEMADE.

So, wouldn’t you say since we are staying safe from COVID this year so we, and our loved ones, can be around next year, that this Holiday season is about LOVE!

I will even find it easy to forego having a cup of coffee with this guy!

I photographed George in the large Nespresso shop, just down the street from my apartment in Paris a few years ago. He was SO overly life-sized that I almost felt his real life presence was in the shop, especially when I was having my complimentary cup of espresso upstairs and looking down on this giganto framed photograph!

The shop has now moved to the Marche Saint Germain in the 6th arrondissement and, if I remember correctly, George didn’t make the cut to the new shop: https://www.nespresso.com/boutiques-fr/paris-marche-saint-germain

Now it is obvious to me that I should have chosen this Beatles song: All You Need is Love. And, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xMfIp-irg

BUT, in selecting out tunes for this Advent post, I found myself falling in LOVE with this one. I am not a huge fan of Arlo Guthrie but please, maybe you can trust me on this one and take a listen? At the beginning of this youtube video he tells a story that so resonates to the global-ness of the world that took place over 30 years ago after the Berlin Wall fell. I have faith that LOVE of our neighbors, near and far, will start to make its way back again in 2021…

One of the comments Guthrie makes during his storytelling portion: “How PROUD I was to come from a country where our songs were loved and known and sung ALL over the world by ALL kinds of people.” Give it a try…Sing along or sing to your partner or…,just listen…knowing you are loved.

I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSF89swJ9IU