A French Christmas

As with everything in France, Christmas was all about the food!  I guess to some degree this is true at home as well but for some reason it just feels amplified here.  We of course had a lovely time with Marc's family and thankfully Santa (Pere Noel) found us in France.  The girls were a bit concerned about this.

We bought a tree and lights and Mamie and Tata donated the ornaments.

Christmas Eve was spent with Mamie and Papi (Marc's parents).  It was a culinary adventure for the girls.  Can't say that they actually ate too much of it before we got to cheese and dessert.  At least they can always count on bread, cheese, and dessert to tie them over to the next meal.


Aperitif -- Champagne with salmon crositinis
1st Course -- Pate
2nd Course -- Les Crevettes (Prawns with bodies in tact!!)
Entree -- Les Escargots (Snails) with butter, garlic, and parsley
Bread and Cheese
Dessert -- La Buche de Noel (the traditional Christmas Cake in France)

When Teah got her bowl of prawns she was really confused about how she was supposed to eat them.  Mamie proceeded to come over and show her by ripping the head off the little guy and peeling off the skin.  There was no way we could convince Teah to try it after watching the brutality unfold.  ;-)  Loucky (the dog) on the other hand had no problem at all with it and was really hoping Teah would let him help finish them off. 

Next came the snails....Teah actually ate two of them.

And Lola proceeded to eat the whole plate of them; 12!!

The Christmas Cake

In France no presents are exchanged on Christmas Eve.  Actually all the presents are received on Christmas Day and they are ALL from Santa.  Huh?!?!  Since both of the girls still believe in Santa my first reaction was how am I going to sell this?  At home we are used to having Santa gifts and gifts from the rest of the family. But apparently in France only Santa brings gifts on Christmas and on top of that he delivers them to different houses.  So the girls have the usual presents on Christmas morning plus presents at Mamie and Papi's house and Tonton and TaTa's house; all from Santa.

Okay! My first reaction was concern that the change in tradition would illicit multiple questions, especially from Lola, that would weaken the magic of Santa or worse case scenario actually debunk the whole thing.  Marc talked me down from the ledge and basically convinced me that the girls are going to be so excited to be opening the presents that they won't ask any questions; that I was overthinking it.  All right.  I put my trust in that with the caveat that if any questions did come up HE had to be prepared to answer them.

Thankfully the following explanation proved to be enough: "So in France they do Christmas a little different. Santa actually leaves presents for you at all your relative's houses. But because of this you won't also be getting presents from Mamie/Papi and Tonton/TaTa."  No further inquiries ensued. Phew!!  The magic was saved for at least one more year.

Christmas Morning!!  Pere Noel came with presents for everyone.

#1 on the list this year for both girls were these rolling backpack/bags.  "All the kids in France have them", according to Lola and Teah.  They had also asked for fuzzy boots, ear muffs, and circle scarves because again "all the kids in France have them".  They were lucky enough to get all the above for Christmas and Teah's response was "Now I'll fit in with the French kids!"  

The other thing they both really wanted were these ridiculous (okay my opinion, not theirs) dog and cat that walk by themselves on leash and bark and meow.  We can thank their French friends Lisone and Leonie for turning them on to those.

We returned to Mamie and Papi's for Christmas lunch with TonTon, TaTa, and the cousins.  Before eating yet another elaborate meal we got to open the rest of the "Santa" presents.

The presents rather unceremoniously stacked up on and around the chair.  Ha, Ha!!

Who wouldn't love fuzzy hooded pajamas with little bear ears on top.

And an awesome art set!

Even Loucky got a gift from Pere Noel.

After the presents and aperitif we were back to the table for more......food!

Aperitif -- champagne with pate crostinis
1st Course -- smoked salmon
Entree -- cornish game hen with chestnuts, green beans, and cardon gratin
Bread and Cheese
Dessert -- La Bouche de Noel (the same as the night before plus an ice cream option)

After a weekend full of food, champagne, and wine I didn't eat again for another 24 hours.

In the evening we got to Skype with our family in California; Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Becki, Uncle Kenny and Cousin Olivia.  We saved their presents for the Skype call and the girls got to open their last Christmas presents (not from Santa) via camera for all to enjoy.  Although of course it was hard for me to be away from my family during Christmas and from our usual San Francisco traditions I felt incredibly grateful that we got to celebrate the holiday with Marc's family.  All in all it was a very special weekend full of memories we won't soon forget.