thanks christmas

Thanksgiving in France was an epic day for me. I took on the task of preparing an entire thanksgiving meal for my family. But I figure the best way to sum it all up is to just copy my journal entry.

November 25, 2010
"Happy Thanksgiving! Wow, what a day, I just pulled off a thanksgiving dinner. I literally cooked all day. This morning I pounded and seasoned the turkey breast, then made the pie crust, then ran to the store to get some celery, kitchen string, and more flour, came back and made the lemon meringue pie, took a shower, made the dough for the rolls and cinnamon rolls, cleaned a bit, finished making the rolls and cinnamon rolls, peeled potatoes, picked the kids up from school-I was late so I had to run through the town-came back, helped the kids with homework, then i started making the stuffing, and boiling the potatoes, finished the stuffing, stuffed and rolled the flattened turkey breast and tied it with string, seared them, put that in the oven, finished the mashed potatoes, then cooked some carrots (made them with orange juice, super good) and heated up the corn. Finally done! After the turkey was done we all sat down, told each other what we were thankful for and then feasted. While we were eating Aymeric came down with a gift for me! My french family gave me a cookbook! They are so wonderful. We finished off the meal with dessert, and everyone loved it. The meal was a success. I give most of the credit to my mother, I most certainly could not have done it without her. Today, more than anything, I am thankful for my mom. She coached me through this and gave me all the great recipes. She is my hero!"

Ha ha, it's fun to go back and read my journal. I remember being so amazed by the fact that my mom cooks as much as she does, and that it always tastes perfect. I also remember feeling-and looking-like I had just finished a marathon after making that meal. Oh the joy of cooking!

Christmas was incredible, it mostly made me realize how blessed I am to be able to spend time with this incredible family in France, and for their generosity and kindness of including me in their holiday celebrations. Sadly I didn't take any pictures that day, I was having too much fun enjoying my first Christmas in France. But I've still got my journal, so I'll summarize the highlights.

The gifts.
I didn't actually expect that I would receive many gifts, so I just about cried when I received: a fantastic macaron cookbook from Karine and Bertrand (Andrea's host parents), a gourmet dessert cookbook and the tools from my family, a little orange-honey candle from Veronique (Bertrand's mother), and a scarf from Annie and Loic (Cedric's parents). Alright so it was only 4 things, but that morning it felt like a million.

Toi! Noire!
Well I don't know how this keeps happening to me, but occasionally children think I'm black. Andrea's girls received a microphone/video/music thing that can be hooked up to the t.v. After all the gifts had been unwrapped the girls immediately started playing with this one. Just so happens you can hook a camera up to the t.v. so you can watch yourself sing! Well the girls just had a ball with that. Then they started filming everyone around the room, and getting everyone to join in with the karaoke. Turns out I wasn't paying attention. When suddenly I hear, "Toi! Noire!" Sweet, little Marion was pointing her finger at me. I couldn't help but laugh, especially with the look of surprise on Uncle Cedric's face when she blurted that out. Marion is hilarious. I adore her. Over the holiday season I also acquired the nickname of "Mary Christmas" from her. She's great, here's a picture:

Orangina.
The next best event of the day occurred during appetizers before our big Christmas lunch. We were all gathered in the living room eating a selection of appetizers that included escargot and a variety of delights. There was a 'Merry Christmas' toast about to go down, so Andrea and I received the non-alcoholic beverage of Orangina to toast with. After the sounds of clinking glasses ceased, I finished my fizzy, orange beverage, then looked next to me to see Andrea, her glass almost full and a look of dismay on her face. I asked her what was the matter. And then something along the lines of this happened:
"I don't like carbonation."
"Oh, well I'll drink it for you."
Problem is we couldn't just switch our glasses in front of everyone during the fancy, French Christmas party. So when a few people left the room it was down to me, Andrea, René, Bertrand and the girls, likely the smallest audience we could afford to wait for, I turned towards Andrea shoved my empty glass in her hand, took hers, and it was as if nothing ever happened, not a word was exchanged, the switch was done, and my glass was magically refilled.

It's alive!
The meal that followed was spectacular, and very french. I loved it, I could talk about it for hours. But I'll just mention a couple exciting things. Our second entreé was fresh oysters. Now that just took the fancy to a whole new level. I didn't realize how fresh they were until I took a bite. Still cold, and salty from the sea! Then Cedric had the joy of informing us that they were still alive! He took a lemon and squeezed it on one... then it moved. After that Cedric joked that the oysters would still be alive in my stomach calling out to Andrea to rescue them. Ha ha, I'm certain Andrea was happy to be a vegetarian that day. Our dessert, made by Bertrand, was the traditional Bûche de Noël. Chestnut flavored and decorated with little blue owls, it was a sight, as well as delicious!

We all carried on in our merry little way, and it turned out to be a spectacular Christmas, one of the best.