SA's first real "horsey" ride and first taste of the traditional French "Buche de Noel".

A CHRISTMAS OF MANY FIRSTS

I wanted to entitle this blog "Foie Gras-ed Out" or "Freezing In France", but I am determined to write a positive account of the many humorous parts as well as the difficult parts of our first Christmas in France. We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday, and I am so happy to be enjoying the company of my husband for the next 2 weeks as he is taking advantage of the wonderful European vacation benefit currently. (He gets 8 weeks each year!)We are indeed blessed here in our little French town with our little French house and our precious little SA, and I am enjoying this season of blessings! However, this season is not without its challenges as well. Some have been humorous and some are just plain irritating, but I suppose they are all for our growth and I pray that I will grow through them.

It seems that foie gras is a menu must for this time of year in France. All of the French people that I know were planning to have it, and I even considered buying some until I realized that all my friends would be serving it. For those of you who don't know, foie gras is either duck or goose liver, and it is considered a delicacy here. I had been a little disgusted at the thought of eating it for the past year, until I visited some Irish friends who served it to me on toast with some champagne. I thought it was foie gras, and trying to be a good sport, I ate it and actually enjoyed it for the first time. I was proud of this "progress" as I had tasted it a time or two in restaraunts with D but never liked it before. It is pretty important in French culture to enjoy such gastronomic delicacies. So, on Sat. night, being the culture conscious guest, I induged in a few little pieces of foie gras covered toast at a party with friends. Around 2 AM, I woke up in the middle of the night very sick. Little did I know that my foie gras filled holiday had only just begun!

On Christmas Eve we had a French couple from our church over for dinner with their adult son. They are very good friends and kind of like adopted grandparents to SA. They brought the entree (appetizer) which was, you guessed it, foie gras. This time it was battered and served with sauteed apples! I tried to explain to my friend that I had eaten too much of it the night before and had been a little sick. She seemed upset, however, that I would not be enjoying this "delicacy" and appreciating her culinary efforts. SO, attempting to be the culturally sensitive hostess, I ended up eating the whole serving. (It was actually very good, and I did manage to keep it down this time.)

These same friends had invited us for lunch the following day with their 4 adult children. We had intended just to stay for an aperitif. However, after they showered SA with gifts, we felt that the appropriate thing to do would be to stay for the meal. Guess what we had for an entree? This time the foie gras was served with a salad and what I think was raw ham! But before we got to the entree, we had an "amuse bouche" of escargot! Ok, I had never intended to be this culturally sensitive, but when you are at someone's house and they are serving something as normal to them as mashed potatoes would be to us, it is hard to say no. I did tell them that I had never tasted escargot before and that I was a little scared, but that just made for a kind of awkaward moment. So, when served, I just turned off my brain and ate the little snails (luckily they were stuck in little puff pastries so I couldn't see them). And of course being the good Southern girl that I am, I commented, "C'est bon" (It's good). That comment got me an extra helping of escargot that I really didn't want, and then I had to shove them in as fast as I could because my friend told me that they would get hard if they got cold! The escargot was followed by the foie gras which was followed by the main dish, venison (yes,deer!) and a celery puree. Then we had the cheese course (my personal favorite) and dessert (traditional chocolate Buche de Noel) a cake that looks like a yule log.

So, this has been a Christmas of firsts. Currently, my husband is working on getting a space heater set up as our house has been at 15 degrees Celsius/62 degrees Farenheit for days. This climate control (or lack of) has been the biggest adjustment aside from the language barrier in this move to France. I am sure that you remember my grumbling in July about how hot it was, well, now it is below freezing- negative four Celsius to be exact. Our tile floors throughout the house stay very cold, and one can feel the cold coming in under the doors. I have pillows in front of the doors, but the draft still comes in. My normal body temperature has always been below normal- around 97.9 and I have perpetually cold feet and hands especially in the winter. Slippers and robes are an absolute necessity here. I was elated when I found a microwaveable pair of slippers that my mother in law gave me last year. They are like heaven for cold feet! The feature of all houses here that makes the least sense to me is that we have to open and close the shutters all the time which lets the cold in and the heat out during the winter and the heat in and the cool air out in the summer. It is dreary to keep them closed and live in the dark though. Hopefully, this space heater will help tonight. Here are some Christmas pics! SA eating her mini "Buche de Noel" and riding her new "cheval a bascule"!

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It's Christmas time at our house, and SA has enjoyed tasting the frosted fruit ornaments on our tree this year. Luckily we have had only one glass ball ornament broken so far, and fortunately she has not actually ingested any artificial frosted fruit. We have been reading about baby Jesus and how He is the reason we celebrate Christmas. I have pulled out almost all the Christmas books that I used to read to my third graders and she listens intently to them. She really loves that there is "hay", "cows", "sheep", and a "donkey" in all of the stories about the birth of Jesus. And she loves that there is a huge bright star too.

The other day we had her friends over to make sugar cookies. Thanks to Aunt Abby's recipe, we had some lovely icing to decorate with, and I had some sprinkles and red hots from home to use as well. I am still learning what one can and cannot find here for all of our traditional American recipes. Apparently, we decorate cookies in the US more than they do here, but then if we had patisseries in the US like the ones here, I bet no one would decorate cookies there either. I am still on the hunt for food coloring. I need it to make colored icing (next year) and to make red velvet cake for Christmas Eve. We are having our French friends over for an American meal (except the foie gras which they will bring, and the champagne and cheese that we will have with the meal). Joyeux Noel!!!!!!!!!