Chéri and I had a fun intimate party for New Years Eve, at our place with Lisa of Ella Coquine with her chéri and our good friend Sophie. It was nice to just have a small group of good people gathered together to laugh, drink some bubbly, eat decadent delights and be silly until well past the pumpkin hour.

I served some of my remaining champagne from Mon Champagne, Hediard foie gras (splurge!), Lisa brought smoked salmon bites with a totally amazing dairy/soy free creamy dill dip, and amazing sweet marrons marinés from Sophie, and then of course one of my favorite foods, nêms!

We downed 5 bottles of bubbly between the five of us (actually four of us because Chéri spent most of the evening drinking red wine, he isn’t a big bubbly fan)… so yeah, you do the math. Good thing there was so much food to eat!

Two fabulous things, no three, fabulous things came to my attention from this little soirée :

1. Ginger snap cookies are great to use as improvised toasts for foie gras, which when shaved is so much more fun and delightful! I made (and ate) too many of these! I sprinkled on either a little sea salt, or a dollop of onion confite. Sooooo decadent! So good! So Parisian!

2. Chéri and I are awesome as a charades team! May 2014 be full of charade parties with friends (and us winning…yeah, I’ve got a little Grace Adler in me!). In fact I probably look like a crazed blond version of Grace when playing charades. But man, Chéri is good at the miming part. Maybe it’s because he’s French. LOL!

3. I can still wear the sexy black cocktail dress I bought when I was 18! My twin sister and I both bought the same little black dress, and took ourselves out to the fanciest restaurant in town for our 18th birthday when we were living on Cape Cod. It’s one of my most favorite memories with my twin. So this year for NYE, I donned the dress and put on some sparkly fashion pearls that she gave me a few years ago for Christmas. Spending holidays without her year after year is hard, so I try to make her feel present in any way I can. (I also called her at 3am and let her in on my tipsy ramblings and general silliness). But, to make a long story short, my 18 year old self wouldn’t have known what to think if I told her I was well into my 30’s, still wearing that little black number, living in Paris, married to a Frenchman and totally awesome at charades! (oh well, no, the charades part my 18 year old self would not have been surprised in the least!)

Happy New Year to you all!!!

May you all have as many blessing and joys as I am so very lucky to enjoy.

*Bisous de Paris*