Joyeux Noel

i arrived back at my host parents at about 5pm.. rather than the 3:30 or 4 i had planned on. i came in, said hi to everyone quickly, then excused myself to shower because i felt rather gross after having spent the entire day on a train.. i decided i would like to look at least somewhat presentable for the evening.

20 minutes later when i arrived back downstairs, i was finally able to fully register everyone who was there. my host parents of course. my host mom's brother and his wife. his daughter, her fiance, and their daughter. all of my three of my host siblings, and my host sister's husband and baby. both grandmothers. and later my host sister's husband's brother and his girlfriend showed up, and one of the grandmothers went home. anyways.

my host dad asked if i was hungry, and i quickly answered yes. but my host mom told him to wait a minute because we were just about to eat anyways... well turns out they had had a nice christmas lunch, and it was time for dessert.
she then handed me a couple gifts, i was so surprised! turns out they had gotten me a pair of socks (since they thought it was hilarious when i told them i have practically a million pairs) and a sweater shirt thing. i then realized i had left the swiss chocolate i had gotten them upstairs, so i would give that to them later. 
then i finally got some food. i started off with raspberry mousse, chocolate mousse, a meringue, and two different types of cookies. all of which were delicious and made by my host mom i believe (and you wonder why i want to keep living here?). but as delicious as it was i was really hoping i would be getting some real food later, and when i checked my phone and saw that it was 6 o'clock at this point, i realized it was a pretty safe bet that there would in fact still be dinner (the french eat late).

dinner's specialty was escargot (which i had never tried before) and foie gras (which i had also never tried before). as much as i knew i wanted to try escargot (and still want to really try grenouille - aka frogs) considering how long i will be staying in france, i was a little bit nervous. i have to say though, after getting over the fact that i was eating snails, i thought they were pretty good! i actually kind of surprised myself by enjoying them. but hey, you mostly taste all the garlic sauce that it is cooked in. i think i ended up eating like 6 of them.

i wasn't quite as big a fan of the foie gras. but hey, you win some you lose some.

there was also some smoked salmon, shrimp (which i reallyyy enjoyed), bread of course, some wine, and maybe one or two other things.

and then of course dessert. two buche de noel. basically an ice cream log. one was chocolate, the other raspberry. both delicious.

basically there was a bunch of traditionally french food. yay! and i'm pretty sure i ate more dessert than dinner. haha

after some people had already left, i brought my computer downstairs so that my parents and hostparents could have a chance to "meet" over skype. my host parents were very impressed with my mom's french.

after everyone had actually left, i chilled downstairs for awhile with my host parents and marc-philippe (who is home from university for winter break). and before i knew it, it was midnight and we were all heading upstairs. mannn was i exhausted. as much fun as the evening had been, people could tell i was tired after my 8 days of travel and a couple people even asked me if i was tired. but i still managed to go upstairs and skype my family for about another hour.. which had started with a phone call to my friend kristen in an attempt to wish her and her parents a merry christmas, only to find she was actually hanging out with my family instead. so that was fun :) by the time i realized it was about 1 am, i realized i should probably finally go to sleep. sunday would be a day to relax, write a blog, not worry about doing much.. but monday would mean the start to studying for my last two finals. funnn funnn (but not really).

oh and here is my host parents christmas tree! with a creche underneath. when my host mom first set this up, she brought me over, and was so excited she could explain the characters to somebody again.. since her grandson isn't quite old enough yet, and her kids are all grown.  i thought it was cute :)

and the first decoration my host mom put out... back at the end of november i believe, but i finally took a picture. it made me so happy when she put it out, i do love christmas decorations :)