It has officially been 3 months since I've lived here and I can finally communicate people! Yes, in French. After last years experience I was somewhat traumatized by the thought of Christmas, but this year after living here for some time and being able to speak, it turned out to be a genuinely great experience.

It was just us four, me my boyfriend and his very French parents who take me in like their second child. As you can imagine heavy heavy wine and champagne drinking takes place during the holidays here. BUT in the Rudelle household, it's like the wine olympics. His dad's wine cellar is the gateway to heaven (at least for people like my mom and I) and he takes the holidays very seriously when choosing what we should drink.

2012 Saint-Véran

I, a previous drinker of Miller Light during the holidays have upgraded immensely. Mat's dad sells wine, and Mat is following in his footsteps. Can I get a hallelujah?

Dish #1
2 Bottles of champagne. I'm going to consider this a dish because I was full, and extremely happy.

Bernard Goucher Champagne

Dish #2
Homemade vegetable soup. Simple, yet delish.
His mom and dad are gods of soup. In their household during the winter, soup is a necessity to every single meal. Their purées blow Panera Bread out of the water, bread bowl included.

Dish #2
Shrimp, very very large shrimp...with eyes.


Dish #4
Tarte aux poireaux (turnip tarte)

Dish #5
Camembert, Comté, and Bleu cheeses..with more wine, and a baguette.
Dish #6
La Bûche

Dish #7 

It took everything in me to find an icing recipe without corn syrup, because the French are somewhat more conscious of their waist lines (disregard the last 6 pictures), but I was a girl on a mission. Mat helped me and it was actually so much fun, and hilarious how horrible at decorating we were.

Side note: we had no rolling pin, but a wine bottle was perfect..go figure.

My favorite part of the entire experience? Even though they weren't familiar with the songs, Mat's parents encouraged me to play Christmas music during the entire dinner. I felt at home, really.