About 48 hours from now, Holly Gary is scheduled to land at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta after a long journey home from France.
Her two-week winter break will begin. Soon, she’ll be hanging out with her good pal, Roger the Cat, just like always.
And for the rest of us, holiday celebrations will kick into high gear.
Lisa’s family comes to our house on Christmas Eve for their annual holiday celebration. Later that night, we’ll attended Christmas Eve Candlelight Services at FPC.
On Christmas Day, we’ll enjoy some quiet time at home in the morning and then proceed to my folks’ house in the afternoon to celebrate with my family.
It’ll be a full couple of days; rich with warmth, love and holiday traditions.
Between now and then, there’ll be final presents to wrap, foods to prepare and the obligatory ‘general cleaning and straightening.’ Holly always has a nice flair for decorating, so I’m sure she’ll set the tables for Christmas Eve and do so with aplomb.
I’m sure we’ll spend some time watching some of our favorite Christmas movies as well. I know I’ve told you about our favorite, the quirky Scottish film “Comfort and Joy.” We’ll see it for sure.
But first things first. Holly will pack up her stuff, jump on a train to Paris and then make the eight-hour flight back to the states.
As she comes home, she’ll be reaching the mid-point of her experience in Cherbourg as a teaching assistant. She has taught language and culture to her high school students for three months now and she has settled in nicely. She has also taken some side-trips to see various sites in Paris and around northern France.
She’ll return for the second half of her assignment in early January and I’m sure she’ll do some more travel as warm weather returns in the spring.
She has done a tremendous job. She has grown in confidence. She has met and made friends with a group of fellow teaching assistants from both North America and Europe. And she has begun making plans for ‘what comes next’ with some grad school applications.
We’re very proud of Holly and all she’s done. And on Saturday, we’ll be so happy to welcome her home for the holidays!
JG
Editor’s Note - Speaking of Christmas - and speaking of this weekend - be sure to tune in to Coach Jeff’s Blog on Sunday and Monday for the two-part ‘Year in Review.'
Originally posted 12/19/2013
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