Christmas Eve & Christmas Day Summaries

It's been a good Dec. 24 & 25 for us. We have many good memories that we'll carry with us into the future.

Christmas Eve, we celebrated in-house as a family, with our children & my wife's parents. We had homemade lasagna, a dish that might become a tradition for us. When I grew up, we used to have a Filipino dish called "aroz," which basically was chicken & rice cooked together in a big pot. It's nice to have some family traditions around the holidays.

Christmas morning, after opening the stockings & presents under the tree, we had egg bake, made by my father-in-law. This is a tradition in my wife's family. We also had kid's champagne, which is similar to the sparking grape juice that her family had.

For supper, we had us 7, plus 5 others for the meal. Our guests included an American couple living in Paris, 2 young American men passing through Paris on vacation this week, and an adoptive aunt of our kids who lives here and usually celebrates the holidays with us. Her sister passed away last week & she needed some Christmas cheer.

Our supper menu started with hors d'oeuvres (foie gras & smoked salmon on bread, crab flavored sticks, olives, carrot sticks, and champagne). The main dinner course was chicken, potatoes, gravy, asparagus, a bean & carrot dish, cranberry sauce, and a Saumur white. This was followed by a cheese course (camembert, brie, coulomnier & a goat cheese) and salad. Of course, there was French bread as well. The dessert course had homemade cookies, chocolate, a Christmas log, and pumpkin pie.

The company was delightful. Since we've started doing these Christmas suppers in 2001, we've had a variety of guests each time. Some included visitors just passing through Paris. Others are people living here but don't have family. As we have kids & the resources & desire to host for this event, we are happy to do so, even though it is work. Both my wife & I were adopted by other families when we were single or young married without kids. Now it's our "turn" to be family to others.

Today is Boxing Day. We now have a tradition of going to another family's home for their annual cookie party. That's now one of my favorite traditions at Christmas in Paris.