christmas weekend

Well I know my faithful readers (all 2 or 3 of you....) are dying to hear about my Christmas weekend so here's my little recap for your reading pleasure ;)

On Saturday afternoon I took the bumpy little TER train out to La Manche where I spent Christmas Eve with a wonderfully welcoming French family.

After a champagne apero we started on dinner... let me tell you, what a dinner!

Started off with:
*Oysters on the halfshell (for those who liked them) or a little puffpastry filled with cheese and ham.
*Then another appetizer of fried fois gras with sauteed apples (yum yum!) served with Sauternes
*A trou normand
*Main dish: Ostrich, little bundles of green beans and sweet potatoes (besides the green beans not a typical french dish!)
*Dessert: cookies I had brought (thanks Gwenn for your amazing Chocolate-Chocolate-Craisin recipe!) and a homemade pear/chocolate Bûche de Noël

Then presents were opened around 11pm when a webcam/MSN conversation was set up with the oldest brother who is off in South America.

Christmas carols were sung at midnight and then too beat after that excellent dinner everyone was up in bed by 1am (not that late for a Christmas Eve).

I had to catch my train at noon on the 25th so I could be back in Caen to celebrate Christmas Day with Jen and her family who was visiting from the States. After some fantastic French toast, scrambled eggs (with lardons of course!) and lots of o.j. I rolled on home to open my loot!

I'm one spoiled kid! I got tons of fun stuff from home, I especially liked the 4 pounds of coffee and tons of skiens of yarn, great for cold winter days. While watching my new DVD (Phantom of the Opera) I got a chance to talk to almost everyone at home which was really nice. Then I rejoined (does that exist in English?) Jen, her family and Natalie for a yummy stir-fry dinner.

A big warm hug and thank you to everyone that I could share Christmas with, and to everyone at home who thought about me during the weekend. I couldn't have had a better time over here.

gros bisous a tous