Marc's Public Blog - Family

This year was complicated given covid. I was allowed to fly back and forth because I'm a french citizen and a US resident, but otherwise, travel was not allowed. Obviously this wasn't a great time to travel, but Xmas is precious for my family, so I quarantined before the trip, got covid tested before and the morning of the flight.
The flight itself was not fun, I wore an N100 mask for close to 12H, and let's just say it was not enjoyable, but I was reasonably sure to be safe as a result. I arrived a couple of days before Xmas eve and everything was fine. I just didn't go anywhere after that (most things were closed anyway).

My brother and family came over for Xmas eve and Xmas. Lots of nice food, time together, and games:

After Xmas, we went to see my mom at our retirement home. We were only allowed to see her 1H and in a secluded room while wearing questionably useful surgical clothing

she seemed a bit happy, but also confused by what was going on

It was a quick visit, after 1H they asked us to leave, but hopefully she enjoyed it

I used the opportunity to visit my brother's place a few minutes away, it had been a while since I last went:

my brother spent quite a bit of time working on low res LED projects, too

I used to have a rabbit, I miss him :)

We also had a small family gathering for NYE (4 out of the 6 allowed)

appetizers

yum

seared foie gras? yes please :)

buche et petits fours, yum

jean michel jarre concert for NYE countdown

we even got snow for New Year's

For New Year's, we were invited by the Francs, also our chance to see Tata who got special permission to come out of her retirement home (to be fair, she already had gotten CV19 without even getting sick, so she was kind of low risk). Nice to see the whole family.
As a joke, I came suitably dressed:

like james bond, I had a suit under my suit :)

nice foie gras, yum

Martine did a fantastic job, as always

this is literally all of Paris that I saw on this trip

Lots of nice meals:

choucroute

A few other pictures:

While I was there, my dad used me as child labor, to carry heavy loads and help him build custom cabinets:

why change bits, when you can just change tools?

I also helped him rebuild his video system so that all his devices go through his A/V receiver:

doesn't look much worse than ours at home :)

This was a slightly longer trip than usual, given that there was only one plane out of 6 (between UA and AF), both my flights there and back were cancelled, so I took other ones and ended up staying a bit longer. My dad didn't complain :)
The trip there and back was not fun, I didn't get to see anything at all in Paris this year, but it was still well worth it, glad I was able to go.