Now that all of the wrapping paper, ribbons and bows have been cleaned up, the turkey and stuffing have been served as leftovers, and the relatives have gone home you are – I hope – satisfied with what a great Christmas you had. Oh sure, one or two kids complained they didn’t get everything they wanted and there was that little spat with your sister. But, overall, the hundreds of hours spent in preparation and the hundreds (could it be thousands?) of dollars spent on food, decorations, gifts, travel, special clothing and donations – was well worth it.

It’s very likely that during the rush to get everything done in time you thought, once or twice, “wouldn’t a simpler Christmas be nice?” Welcome to our world. Since leaving our ‘normal’ lives in Los Angeles in the spring of 2006, we’ve spent the holidays on the road: Cuzco, Peru & La Paz, Bolivia (2006); Goa, India & Seoul, South Korea (2007); Cancun & Veracruz, Mexico (2008) and Carcassonne, France (2009).

Since we know no one here there were no visits or visitors but I did spend time with my mother and sisters on the phone on Christmas Eve day thanks to cheap long-distance calls through Skype. It was great hearing all of their news and getting caught up in their excitement for the holidays. No stress about traveling, about too many people in too small a house for too many days. Just a lovely visit.

For the last four Christmases, we’ve been either traveling or on just a short stay in one place so we tend to keep things pretty simple. This year, we bought chocolate bells, Santas, bows and pine cones to decorate the apartment – all of which are consumable (especially by a certain chocoholic among us).

Our gifts, too, were mostly edible: cookies, crackers, candies, wine, olive tapenade and other delicacies. Those that can’t be eaten must be carried to China so these are small and lightweight: a wooden cat, a bath mitt, a travel kit, etc. We did our entire gift shopping in one store: the local supermarket. We didn’t want to waste money on cards or gift-wrapping paper so we used the local newspaper to wrap our gifts. We did spring for a roll of sticky tape.

Oh, and a very expensive chicken. We couldn’t have eaten a turkey alone, so we decided to buy a chicken –already cooked as we have no oven. A local butcher had a rotisserie full of golden-browned birds on the street in front of the shop attracting many shoppers. In fact, there were so many people that we decided this must be some very fine chicken.

“Une poule, s’il vous plait” I politely asked when my turn finally came. “À la fermière?” (Farm/farmer/farmer’s wife style/maybe free range – your guess is as good as mine). “Oui, à la fermière.” Jacob gives me 12 Euros (about $18US) saying: “It can’t be more than that.”

The woman gives me a receipt to pay at the cashier, which I pass onto Jacob to pay forgetting I had the money. He looks at the receipt in shock and says he needs the 12 Euros back and then takes out more money. I’m confused: I didn’t look at the receipt before giving it to him, but I can’t imagine it’s THAT expensive.

We leave the butcher shop with our warm little bundle held tight in my arms and I dare ask: “How much was it?” His eyes are still registering sticker shock: “18 Euros,” he mumbles. Yikes! That had better be a mighty fine chicken. (It was good, but not 25 U.S. dollars worth of good.)

So it turned out that after we’d added up the cost of the chicken à la fermière, wine, a variety of cheeses, a little foie gras and all of the edible gifts we gave each other we’d spent more on food than any two people ought to.

Still, considering everything, I realized as I stood at the supermarket cashier with stressed-out shoppers in front and behind me, that the greatest gift we’d given each other was a very simple Christmas.

PS: The food photos below are just humorous examples of branding in France not what we bought each other (except for the cat’s tongues, which we did buy).

WHAT’S NEXT: We’re in Carcassonne at least until mid-January, then we’ll likely spend a week or two in Vietnam if we save enough money, and then move to China for Jacob’s job in Wenzhou in February 2010.

NOTE: My “This Expat Life” & “Writing on Wednesdays” blogs are on hiatus until we settle down in Wenzhou in February 2010. Between now and then, I’ll be writing only about Baby Boomers Traveling. Hope you enjoy coming along with us.

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