Christmas Fire

OK, now for a little post about Justus. And later I'll do one on Noah, who deserves many words for his handsomeness. But for now, Justus.

Justus is a cool guy working for CA, as I've said, who's married to the beautiful Samantha and is father to three hyperactive and hilarious munchkins. I went to a Christmas party with Justus last night out in the country about an hour outside of Nice.

It was nice because we had a sweet bonfire, chili, and even some carols sung around the fire. I got to finally meet Vincent and his wife Nichole, Justus' team mates here in France, and I must say they were pretty dang cool.

Justus and I stood out on the street waving people in for the first hour or so that we were there, and considering that it's the first night that has dropped below freezing it was kind of a challenge. I was cold, I can tell you that much.

I like Justus though because he's a good, honest guy. And he's from SoCal, we even went to the same church in San Diego a bit, so he's definitely all good ;) I just feel like there aren't enough real people like Justus, who are willing to be themselves and (even though he's apologetic about it some) show their faults. There's a lot to be learned from people like that who are willing to be themselves even when it's not pretty. Not to say Justus isn't pretty, he is. He's just honest with his struggles in a way I've found rare in my time here in France. It's invaluable.

As for the Christmas party, it was mostly comprised of friends of the team, and most of them were families with young children so the place was pretty crazy. It was fun to meet people I'd heard about and put faces to names. I'll tell you what though, if you're gonna hand out marshmallows for roasting you'd better be sure that each kid gets his or her own. Some serious amounts of screaming and malcontent can arise from those little puffy sugar cubes (they're not so much round here as they are cubular... or cubical... something).

Some spiced wine and apple crumble made it truly festive, and Barney's Christmas tree (it was at Barney's house) was spectacular for a guy who hasn't seen a good Christmas tree yet this season.

We only burned a few bottles and other odds and ends, I promise. The pitcher pictured above had some serious cracks in it after being left too close to the fire. It was a good time. We even had a visit form Spiderman (he's smaller in person). But one thing is for sure, I miss apple crumble.