It's Christmas. December 25th. The day that Jesus was born.
Well let's start with yesterday. So yesterday was Christmas Eve. Obviously. The day started off pretty much like any other. I was supposed to go to school in the morning to pick up my report card, and I woke up late so I ran around getting ready really quickly so that we could get to school before 10 30am. But the snow was really bad so my host mom said no let's wait a bit and see if they come by to plow the roads. So I sat down to eat and then went upstairs to finish the present for my host parents. My host mom then came upstairs. She had gotten a text from school saying that they were going to postpone the report cards until January 10th. So no worries. I finished up my host family's gift and went down to lunch. It was a nice lunch. We had salad with little fancy meat thingys and big heaping portions of delicious wonderful melted cheese resting on top. It was so delicious. I love cheese so much. Then Benoit came home. He actually had class on Christmas Eve. So he ate lunch too with us and then I went to work wrapping all my gifts for my family and putting together the Christmas package to send home. It took me a while, but I did finish. And then I cleaned my room and got ready to go to my host mom's parents' house for Christmas dinner.
Around 5 30pm, we all got in the car and put on a Christmas cd as we drove to pick up Damien from school. Cue the beginning of Emma's homesickness. Although I sang along to the songs anyway since they were mostly in English. But after the first half hour I just stared out the window and listened to the music and thought about home. We got Damien from school and then eventually made it to my host grandparents' house. We walked in to a warm welcome from them and my host mom's brother and his wife and kids. They have four children, three boys and a girl. The oldest is seven, the next is five, and then there are two three year old twins, one boy and one girl. They are all so adorable too. We said our hellos and Joyeux Noëls and took off our coats and such. And I learned that mistletoe here is a New Years tradition, not a Christmas one. You kiss someone under mistletoe at midnight on New Years. Interesting.
Everything was warm and sweet and pretty. That house is so full of warmth and love, I can't take it. It reminds me so much of my grandparents' house in the States. And my host grandparents remind me of my own grandparents. It's nuts. We all sat down in the living room and talked and such. And then out came the appetizers. All kinds of little things stacked up on mini crackers. The specialty of grandma. There were some with crab, anchovies, salmon, egg, ham, all kinds of things. I tried anchovies for the first time in my life. I didn't like it much. But I also tried caviar for the first time, and that was wonderful. I have expensive taste I guess. I also drank quite a bit of champagne and couldn't turn my head too fast without a little bit of dizziness. But nothing at all to worry about. They just kept filling my glass before I could say no thank you.
Then it was gift exchanging time. I didn't expect to receive anything, but I did get a few things, and it was very sweet and I felt bad that I had left my present for my family at the house, under the impression that we would exchange on Christmas day. From Damien, I received a nice big bottle of Kriek, which is that cherry flavored beer that I do in fact like. My host parents got me a turquoise Ice Watch, which is very Belgian. I think I'm going to swap it out for the green though. I'll explain why in a bit. My host grandparents got me a nice little dainty silver necklace with a rhinestone peace sign pendant. And my host mom's brother's family, who I had just met that day, gave me chocolates. A nice pallet of little sample sizes of all the Galler flavors. And a little box of "chacolat" which is a box with a few chocolates in it and a comic strip starring a cat (cat is "chat" in French). I was touched by my gifts and liked them very much. Everyone got some nice stuff too, including a GPS for my host dad.
By this time everyone was ready for dinner. So we sat down to our first course, which was a sort of log of pureed lobster and vegetables with a white sauce. The sauce also had little pieces of vegetables in it. We had rolls with it also. It was absolutely delicious and the sauce was so creamy. I was already full by the end of the first course. I helped clear the table and get the next round of plates ready. Each person got their own little tiny cornish hen. They were seriously the smallest eating birds I've ever seen. Each person got one, along with some vegetable that is called "chicon" and a couple of these deep fried potato type balls. It was all covered in a wonderful thick gravy. That was truly delicious. Of course, the kids all got something else to eat, and by this time they were all sitting in front of the television watching some Tinkerbell movie. I could not finish all my food. I thought my stomach was going to burst. But we still had dessert! We took some time in between the courses though. I was drinking wine with the meal too! Which is very different for me. I had a glass of white and of red. And I have to say, I did enjoy it. The first time of my life that I enjoyed drinking wine. Anyways, we took some time now to just chill out. I played with the kids a little and talked to my host brothers. But then it was time for my death: dessert. There were two cakes. They were the yule log type cakes. One was ice cream, and the other was an actual cake that was mocha flavored. They insisted that I take a little of each, so I tried them both. I can't believe my stomach didn't burst. But then they brought out the macaroons, and I was obligated to try one of those too. And then the chocolates, but I passed on those. Then we took some family photos. By this time, it was about 11 30pm and it was time to go. We packed up our gifts and drove home, stopping about halfway to change drivers because my host dad was sleepy. We got home, I showered, watched about half of "The Incredibles" and fell asleep with my homesickness.
This morning I woke up with 20 minutes before the Christmas mass. I hurried up and got ready and then me and host parents went to the church behind the house and Benoit met up with us. It was probably the saddest Christmas mass I've ever been to. There was hardly anyone there and the music was very depressive. But it was a Christmas mass nonetheless, and although I didn't understand much, I kept up as much as I could. When it was over, we went back to the house and had a breakfast of bread and Nutella and jelly. Which my host brother thought was especially strange. I then went upstairs to take a nap, but instead ended up writing a bit more of my novel, applying to another university, sending a few emails and writing a letter to Ryan. Then it was lunchtime. We had pheasant, though I had chicken instead (I'm not sure why), grilled mango, cooked cinnamon apples, and roasted potatoes. We were supposed to go today to my host dad's sister's house for Christmas dinner, but because of the snow, we are going tomorrow instead. Then I Skyped with my family for 2 hours and read the story of Christmas with them, watched them open their gifts, and talked with them about things going on in life. I then amused myself with Skype and StumbleUpon, since my host parents went out and my host brothers were each in their rooms doing their own things. Very odd Christmas. I was feeling pretty homesick. But then it was dinner time, which was just fish soup with shrimp and cooked oysters, which I didn't eat. But the conversation was very good and I gave my family the cookbook of American recipes that I had made them for Christmas. We flipped through it together, and it turns out I didn't make that many mistakes in it! I had translated all the recipes from English to French and converted them from US to metric. It took a while, but it was worth it because they really liked it and appreciated it.I spent a good chunk of time downstairs afterwards talking with my host mom and a little with my host dad, and then I Skyped with the whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, for about a half hour. And then I showered and now I'm blogging and my eyes are closing. It's time for Emma to go to sleep.
Tomorrow, we continue Christmas. Bonne nuit !
Blessed Christmas, Emma!
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