Christmas Eve was spent with James' family. We started the night off with a church service. It didn't meet my expectations as I LOVE the candlelight Christmas services with lots of music that I am used to in the states!
After church everyone returned to "La Musse," the name given to the family house (loosely translates to somewhere you can hide, which I understand because it's a big house in the country).
It had super fun decorations drawn on the windows of the room we use as the dining space.
The tradition is that everyone lines up in the basement from youngest to oldest. When the green light is given they enter the main level of the house and find their gifts and wrapping paper flies.
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| James sitting with his Dad as he opens some gifts |
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| The shirt we gave him, looks good |
The children then sat down to eat while the adults enjoyed some appetizers and wine.
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| James closely inspected the bottle :) |
Dinner was similar to the Christmas dinner I shared with them all last year. It consists of some traditional French Christmas cuisine: smoked salmon, foie gras, and oysters.
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| Smoked Salmon, my favorite of the 3 |
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| Foie gras, eaten on small toasted bread |
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| Oysters, eaten with a squeeze of lemon juice |
Like most families, everyone brings a dish to contribute to the meal. Last year we brought dessert, which consisted of some traditional Christmas goodies that I would make in the states with my mom and family. I was able to make them last year as I had some ingredients here in France. They were a HUGE hit and as a result we are to bring dessert to E-V-E-R-Y family get together now (no pressure).
This Christmas was no different, however, I was greatly lacking in my stock of ingredients. The following are some of the items I made for this Christmas. I made 6 different things, most of which have NOTHING to do with Christmas but they are "American" and therefore I am good to go. The sprinkles were sent to me by my mom and they were the saving grace to make things look Christmas-like.
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| Special K bars with Christmas Sprinkles |
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| No idea what the actual name of these are...marshmallows rolled in caramel and then chocolate rice krispies |
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| A new no-bake made with rice krispies, mini marshmallows, peanuts, white chocolate, peanut butter and of course CHRISTMAS SPRINKLES |
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| Rice Krispies with food coloring and sprinkles |
The vote is that the dessert was amazing again and many of the adult nieces and nephews stocked up on the extras to take home with them!
In addition to great food, the evening consisted of lots of laughter and cheer. Normally everyone spends the night but we had to leave because James had to work ALL of Christmas Day. So we stayed as long as possible (3:30 a.m.).
We are celebrating our Christmas this evening since both of the girls are here. I can't wait to see wait Santa brought me!!!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
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