I haven’t taken enough photos of the main floor at the chateau. On walking in, it’s a long, massive area that houses a living room area, an enormous banquet table, and a full kitchen.
Our car (me, Liz, and Audrey) arrived first. And we got really lucky with our parking (it was incredibly hectic, and most folks parked several blocks away and walked in on foot).
Someone pulled out not two blocks from one of the entrances, and we were in the right place at the right time.
While the others were on route, we explored a little bit of the market.
A slow start to the day. I hopped in the car with Kirt, Anne, and Jackson… and we just drove around for a good while, getting lost along some of the roads near the chateau.
Everywhere you look, there’s a winery. Which I guess makes sense, since we’re in Bordeaux.
But as far as the eyes can see, there are rows of grape vines. The roads are small and narrow, and everything is charming. There’s a stillness everywhere.
The Holders were away on a travel vacation over Christmas proper, but flew back in to Chicago yesterday. And so we made plans to hang out, and to have a late birthday dinner/celebration for Kirt.
After showing folks around our house (and our newly updated floors)… we decided on something for our afternoon: mini-golf.
Late morning, several of us took Grace to the airport for her flight back to college. On our way home, we stopped off at the Grand Rapids Christkindl Markt.
Turkey-vision.
Normally, Liz and I tend to leave in the late morning to trek home to Chicago. But today, we decided to stay a little longer – not rush right out the door, and just hang out a bit more.
A pretty lazy day, today. We milled about the house, and mostly took the morning and early afternoon very, very slowly.
Anne, taking a photo of Jackson with some Lafayette College swag. Which, apparently, is all the rage and the thing to do in terms of social media posts.
For dinner, we met up at Tirami Sú. A lot of great food, and some great conversations. My only regret was that we were on the other end of the table, and didn’t have much time to chat with Jackson, his girlfriend Angel, and Grace all that much.
I have to say – the kitchen was a scene of utter chaos. And I absolutely loved it. People moving around, jostling, yelling for space and help. A bustle of activity and collisions and it was just so glorious to witness.
You may gauge the holidays on the meals that are served. But for me, the pleasure and measure of it is in the preparation. A house is full of love when its kitchen is full with motion.
While surfing Facebook, I happened across this post by Anne – and did a doubletake. It was her talking about how much she enjoyed a recent play she had just attended, a production of The Chinese Lady, by Lloyd Suh, at Tipping Point Theatre.
When I saw this – a question entered my brain of “Wait, Lloyd?” And after a split second, I had a follow-up thought of “Of course, it’s Lloyd.”
Back at the house, Sandy’s cozied up in the living room.
Group photo, with a lot of lovely lights in the background.
I’m in awe, and I haven’t even step foot inside any building yet.