One anniversary this is: twenty years ago I moved to France (thanks to a 13-hour ride-sharing trip from Neustadt to Bordeaux all across the country with little to no highways… hail to student budgets). Except for some 6 months traveling around Eastern Europe (2010) and a little over a year of Pittsburgh (2018/19), I’ve been living in France ever since. January 13 has an additional vibe to it, since it turned into my birthday for many years thanks to Facebook’s virality.

It’s 2025, and entering the new year was much fun! We had a crowd of 20 people at the cottage, making those days flying by way too fast. Back in Pantin now, back into my routine, and pretty close to Jan 13: my twentieth anniversary of having arrived in France! Effi seems to grow faster than time goes by, she’s walking all around the place while letting out yells of joy. She’s pretty determined and picky when it comes to food: waving her arm when she dislikes something and pointing at what she likes, and obviously: the more, the better. When Max was her age we dragged him down under, meeting uncle Adam and all the beauty that Australia has to offer. It’s fun to browse through the pictures and compare both kids, they’re so different while being so similar.

And zou… we are already returning to Pantin. Five days of holidays at home at mum’s 5 star hotel are behind us. We are all well fed and perfectly recovered, and got our fair share of hugs and kisses, especially Effi.

Christmas is just around the corner, and thanks to the return of the Lebkuchenpaket the wait hasn’t been too hard. Saturday I’m taking the train home for Christmas, together with Mathilde and Effi. A week later we’re heading to Maupertuis with the kids as and a large bunch of friends to celebrate whatever and everything that needs to be celebrated. This means two weeks straight off at work, and plenty of good moments ahead. Happy end-of-year holidays!

Intelligence is not about what you know, but about what you do when you don’t.