Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to write yesterday, but the jet lag had caught up with me.
Christmas Eve morning, Sylvain + I drove out to Montigny Les Bretonneux to visit our friends, Alex + Claire, their 5 month-old daughter Alice, their dog, Sherlock, and their new home. Their house is quite nice; they had done some remodeling as well – kitchen, bigger rooms, etc. We visited for a while and then we were off to Paris to meet John, Sylvain’s bro, for lunch.
John lives down the street from the famous Moulin Rouge. If you are not familiar with Paris, it is also the red light district: sex shops and strip clubs abound. John recommended an Italian place nearby. Eric, Benedicte, John, Sylvain & I enjoyed a wonderful lunch (well, at least my penne al’amatriciana was good, can’t speak for the others).
Before heading home, Sylvain and I still needed to purchase our white elephant gifts. We walked around St. Germain-en-Laye to find the same Marche Noel that we had seen at La Defense. Nothing really caught our eye, so we wandered further and found a bookstore with some cheap and decent gifts.
Christmas Eve dinner was delicious and filling: foie gras starter, seafood terrine, asparagus wrapped in bacon, cheese (bien sur!), and dessert. (Can you hear my arteries clogging?)
While I wrapped gifts late into the night, Sylvain taught his parents & John how to play Texas Hold’em. ;o)
Since there are no young children on my side of the family, I forgot that Christmas morning is an early rising. I awoke to joyous screams and yells from above. I dragged my a** out of bed at 7.30a to find out that Leo (our 4 year old nephew) had a Santa sighting, or at least an elf that was dressed up as Santa. To preface that, the night before Sylvain’s mom had convinced John to dress up as Santa and run through the backyard to make Leo think that Santa really does exist. Well, the plan didn’t go as smooth as she had hoped. Leo was so excited to see Santa, but he was also surprised when santa started taking off his suit. So, naturally, Leo thought that there was someone in the yard posing as Santa – an elf, he figured. (A tall one at that, John is probably 5’11” – 6′.) He still doesn’t have an idea that it was John and us adults are getting a good chuckle out of it. ;o)
Tonight, Sylvain’s family (his father’s side) came for Christmas dinner: salmon, oysters (a French Christmas tradition), foie gras (more!?), roast pork with a madeira sauce, potato croquettes (as sinful as tater tots), cheese, buches de noel (chocolate & cafe), and endless boxes of chocolates and truffles.
After the White Elephant gift exchange, Sylvain introduced poker to his family. We ended up playing for 5+ hours! (To put things in perspective, his family started arriving at 12.15p, we sat down to Sunday lunch at 3p, and the last family member left at 11.30p.)
Well, that was our Christmas in (large) nutshell. I hope to post some more pictures before we leave for London on Wednesday. Still haven’t gone ice skating yet, hopefully Monday or Tuesday. ;o) And still no snow. My mom is in Texas now, and it’s snowing there.