Merry Christmas

The night before Christmas is the big dinner in the French tradition. Mamie and Patrice (and a little extra helper) made a traditional buche de noel for dessert.

Pretty, and delicious!

Before dinner, we had an aperitif of smoked salmon on crackers and shrimp cocktail with home made mayo. (yum) My in-laws also brought some foie gras, but Patrice ate it too fast to get a picture (wink). We played a French card game (I'm not doing too bad, considering I'm just learning and all the witty repartee during the game is in French).

We promised Nicco that he could see the lights in the neighborhood every night until Christmas, so while the Chefs put the finishing touches on our dinner of duck breast, home-made pasta, and mushroom sauce (again, yum) I took the boy out for a quick ride.

After dinner, we tracked Santa via NORAD and when we saw that he was getting closer, Nicco made a path of bows leading from the front door to the tree (we don't have a chimney, see, and Santa needs to know where to go), then put on his new sock monkey pajamas, and nearly passed out from excitement:

He said good-night and scurried off to bed, promising not to get up no matter what, because Santa only comes to houses where the children are sleeping.

In the night, The Jolly Old Elf put a whole slew of presents under the tree, left us a few notes with instructions, and changed the path so it led to the garage.

Nicco was pretty excited about his new tool, but realizing it is somewhat dangerous, he said to his Papa "Maybe it is for you first."

He liked opening all the gifts and being the distributor.

One of the notes from Santa said to open his sock last, so we came down to just a pile of presents that included a kitty tower, box, food, bed, litter, scooper, and a couple of kitty toys. We asked him what he thought about those presents and he said "These are all for a cat. I think Santa should have brought me a cat." We read the note that said "follow the path." When he opened the door, there was our fuzzy little buddy in her cage. Nicco's eyes and mouth widened, and not quite knowing what to do, (he couldn't cuddle her, as she was in her cage) he exclaimed "I love you!"

The note also said that the elves had been taking special care of the kitten for Nicco, her name is Frankie, and he needs to be sure to take care of all her needs every day.

Nicco's not the only one to love on our new addition.

Papi and I got matching hats, yee haw!

Besides Frankie, I think this is the boy's favorite gift.

Merry Christmas one and all! I hope your days were as fun and exciting as ours, and as full of blessings as well.