Christmas 2011 Part 1: Pre-Christmas festivities!

Well gosh my lovely followers. Here we are at last, the beginnings of an epic post.

Way back in December, I had a two week break for Christmas (have I mentioned there are serious benefits to being a teacher?) and I spent it doing fun, and festive, things! I really cannot even believe how lucky I was, and am, to have so much wonderfulness in my life. Good golly gosh. Okay. Moving forward.

So, my vacation was two weeks, but I didn't spend all of it traveling. I chose to hang out in Domfront for most of the first week. And I was very decidedly Not Bored.
The French celebrate Christmas... not like we do with loud music and lights, but with my favorite version of celebration: Food! And that means that I got invited to dinner with a true passel of people over the week.
We also had house-guests, 4 friends of Vero's from Salvador (also assistants), came up for the weekend to celebrate her birthday.
And I invaded one of my teachers kitchens in an attempt to re-create the Christmas Cookie Party (oh my).
And then there was the holiday hike... I was busy! So let us do this in proper order, shall we?

Friday, December 16th: The last day of school.
The first wave of Salvadorians arrive.
I have my last dance class before a two-week hiatus. This is mostly notable for the truly wonderful invitation I received from one of the women in my class--  I've been in this dance class for a bit over a month, it meets once a week. I have, therefore, met all of the women in my class 4 or 5 times total.
Well, one of the wonderful, wonderful women in this class (which, they will all at some point get a post all to themselves, they are so wild) comes up to me at the end of the evening. She asks me if I have plans for the holidays, and says that if I don't, I am more than welcome to come and celebrate with her family.
Wow.
She goes on about how it's all her family, quite a massive clan, that comes together at her mothers for Christmas, and that she wanted to make sure I wasn't alone for the holiday. On ne laisse pas les gens tout seule! She assured me. Donc, tu est bienvenue chez nous si tu veux. I have never been quite so touched. After barely a month's acquaintance, 5 dance classes, she wants to be sure I am not alone for Christmas. I did have plans, but the gesture, the fact that she thought of me at all, and then went one step further and invited me... Well I was truly touched. Anyone who says the French are a cold people... needs to get themselves set straight.
I thanked her profusely, obviously. And walked home with the warm and fuzzy feeling of general Good Will Towards Men.
This taught me something. It means so much to be invited, to be welcomed somewhere. Even though I already had plans, was already taken care of, knowing that someone took the time to think of me... that is amazing. Even just making the gesture was truly touching. I hope someday I can pay that thoughtfulness forward. Being alone (and a foreigner at that) in a new place... it's tough. And having someone recognize that, recognize that I might need a place to go and be with people at Christmas... it's amazing. It's important. It's wonderful. People can be so kind.

Saturday, December 17th: Fiesta chez Bar Odin. 
Saturday evening, the second wave of Salvadorians arrived. And Vero had her party at Bar Odin.
Odin is the only bar in Domfront.
Yes, Odin... like the norse god.
It's run by a French-Hungarian man named Christian.
Yup. I live here.
Anyway!
Vero and Christian are best buds. Vero goes out most Fridays, and has made friends with the regulars at the bar. So Christian agreed to let her have a sort of party there. We brought over some hors-d'oeurves and munchies, the Salvadorians took over the sound system and general good times ensued.
I got to chat with some of the girls who showed up to the party, find out more about them as people, which was nice. But the best part of the evening? The dancing!
There was some salsa, some bacchata, and some merengue! Not really any of the complex partner dances that I am used to, but still! Dancing and movement!
The Salvadorians seem to dance more as a group thing, sort of like Americans at a night club, only it's all salsa music and basic salsa steps. I can DO that! And I got the truly excellent compliment of a latino asking me if I had latino roots. Yes, I can, in actual fact, move my hips like a latina. I have great pride.

Sunday, December 18th: I go for a walk in the rain. 
Things were pretty quiet Sunday morning.
Sunday at noon I was invited to one of the teachers houses for lunch with her family. The lady works in the collège, and her husband in the lycée. Two of their kids were home for the holidays.
They treated me to an excellent meal and interesting conversation. Then the husband, a history teacher (and a bit of a fanatical intellectual if I'm being honest. He knows a ton about a lot of things, it's totally impressive!) showed me his collection of historical army medals (which was quite cool... I like the Napoleonic pin he had. And a lot of the medals from the first world war were quite pretty actually), and took me on a quick tour of the old castle of Domfront. He used to work with the archeological society, so he was able to give me a much more detailed tour then I had previously had. And that was quite a treat.
Then I went for a walk and got rained on.
But not alone!
I am a part of the Association des Rondonneurs Domfrontais, the Domfront Hiking Club! Wheeee! I'm the youngest one in the group by a good 30 years, but I love the club. They go out one Sunday a month and walk in the region. It's a treat for me because I get to see some more rural locations that I'd never get to on my own. And rural Normandy is breathtaking!
This was my second time out with them. They've all sort of adopted me, the young American girl, into their ranks. I'm almost a sort of mascot I think.
They are all wonderfully nice to me, and teach me words, and explain the history of the trails we hike, and are generally lovely.
For Christmas they drove out to a little town nearby. We did the 10 kilometer walk in the countryside and looped back through the village after dark. This particular village was know for its illuminations... or light displays! Beautiful light displays organized and put up by the town. This particular village has a Noah's Ark theme, including a MASSIVE whale in blue and silver lights.
It was really pretty... if totally sopping wet. Thank goodness for wool socks!

Monday, December 19th: I learn that translating recipe ingredients is not easy. 
Monday I went over to Perrine's house. Perrine is a teacher I work with in the collège. She is terribly sweet, and a very energetic teacher. We also are becoming really nice friends.
Anyway, about a month prior I had been explaining to her about how my family does a traditional Christmas Cookie party every year, and how I miss doing it when I'm in France. So she suggested that we try it at her place! Which was super nice of her.
I went over and we baked all afternoon. She had friends come over that evening to eat cookies, and other little munchies. And I spent the night at her place so that everyone could indulge in Vin Chaud (a truly excellent French holiday tradition. More on that later.) without having to worry about driving me back to Domfront later.

So my mom had sent me our recipes, and I did my best to translate ingredients and convert measurements...
hmmm...
Well..
Yes.
So.
It is, apparently, not that easy.
My ginger crinkles came out exactly as I wanted.
The other two cookies went a bit... off book, shall we say?
The Orange Cut-outs (my favorites), just went a bit wrong. I'm not sure what we did... or what I did, I should say... but the dough was not set to be rolled. So the Orange Cut-outs, just became Orange cookies. They still tasted really good... they were just large and fluffy circles rather than the cut-out cookies they are supposed to be. So that was fine.
But then... then we had the Melting Moments.
Oh my.
Melting Moments are the easy cookie. They have very few ingredients, you roll them into a ball, you bake them, you frost, you eat. Bam.
Wrong.
So very wrong.
My Melting Moments... melted. But not in your mouth, as they are supposed to. Oh no. They melted in the oven. And I don't mean flattening out a bit... I mean dissolving into a puddle of semi-cooked dough that spreads all over and begins to look vaguely like lace, rather than like a small round cookie.
And I couldn't save them.
I tried.
But it didn't work.
I couldn't save them! (Picture the dramatic actor going for Guilt with full fervor here. That's me. Or my mental picture of me.)
I think the trouble came with the cornstarch. I though I had worked out the French equivalent. But I don't think I did... it's my only valid guess. Because butter and sugar are really quite easy to translate. So apparently Mizena is not Cornstarch.
So we salvaged what we good, and gave up on the rest.
All in all though I labeled the First ever International Christmas Cookie Party a success. After all, at the end of the day, we still had lots and lots of lovely cookies.

Tuesday, December 20th: Vero's actual birthday.
We stayed in.
There was more drinking, more dancing, and a very quiet afternoon before the drinking and the dancing.

Wednesday, December 21st: The departure of the Salvadorian Contingent. 
Vero and her friends left quite early wednesday morning. They were headed north for Christmas.
JP and I just sort of hung out and took it easy. Then we both went to Cathrine's for dinner.
Cathrine is another of the teachers I work with. And a really really wonderful cook. They fed us excessive amounts of absurdly good food.
And then we got into a discussion about religion over after-dinner drinks. I managed it... somehow. Considering this was after an apéritif, huge amounts of wonderful food (including sweet potatoes!), two glasses of wine, and the after-dinner drink... and we were chatting in French... I was super proud of not making too much of an idiot of myself. Whew.

Thursday, December 22nd: I go out to dinner again. I begin to suspect I may actually have a semblance of a social life. 
This was my last day in Domfront before beginning my holiday travels. I spent the day running errands, cleaning house, and packing.
Then that evening I was invited to dinner. Again.
Marie-Ange and Claude are a married couple I met through the Association des Rondonneurs. They are wonderful, interesting people. Claude works part time for France-Ouest, the largest regional newspaper. He actually wrote an article on Vero and I (yes, I had my picture in the paper! I'm news here. It's a bit weird.). They had invited me to join them in a "second-family" dinner.
They only have sons...biologically. But they do have three "honorary" daughters. (We don't know anything about honorary family do we? Yes, I'm looking at a fair number of you...) So they had invited their girls to a Pre-Christmas Christmas dinner, and they were kind enough to extend the invitation to me as well.
This was really nice, as these girls are close to my age. So I got to chat with some people in my age groups, and I got a couple of phone numbers for if I want to travel around the region. Which I do. So that was really lovely.
And once again... the food. I could fill a second blog post just raving about all the food  ate during the course of this week, and Marie-Ange was a great way to close it out. Homemade soup, all vegetables fresh from her garden, shrimp, salad, and a tower, a literal tower, of chocolate for dessert. Yum.

Then off back home, and up early the next morning to head to Strasbourg!

Still to come:

-Holiday travel!
- Strasbourg!
- Castles
- Christmas markets
- MORE FOOD
- The joys of vin chaud
- Katt and her associated clan of a family. (hint: fun, hijinks, hilarity! And a really awesome group of people.)
- I learn to be a translator. On the fly.
- Chocolate
- Jigging in public
- More travel
- Germany!
- Lydia and Alex!
- I skied. Did I die? Stay tuned to find out.
- Biking on ice.
- Germans and their fireworks. A harrowing tale of fire, rain, and the battle field... aka the Marionplatz at midnight.
- German food.
- Americans abroad...
- German bath house.
- Did I mention food yet?

Also: I've had this blog up for about two and a half years now (only one year of posting though really...), and I've just passed 1000 page views. Whee! Thank you so much for reading and supporting me and my crazy bloggage~
Keep reading and leaving feedback! You know I love it.

Expect Part 2 of a Very Lucy Christmas within the week!