Christmas Vacation

The vacation came, but now its over, and I still havent written a post. So this ones going to be long!
On the 23d we left Lyon a little after noon for Champagny, host family plus Julie. Champagny turned out to be more of a town that I was originally thinking. There were mostly tourist and ski shops, but also a boulangerie and boucherie. Claires mom, two cousins, and their significant others where there when we arrived. We made 10 in all. That was the 23d. By the evening of the 24th, 18 other family members had arrived. The day of the 24th, Julie, Michel, Laura and I went downhill skiing (ski piste) in the mountains of Champagny. It was a lot bigger than Alyeska! That night, the adults set the table and made preparations for the dinner while the kids got settled in upstairs and played card games. We ate dinner starting at 9:00 pm. We at things that didnt need to be cooked, because there was only oven for 28 people! We first ate oysters and shrimp. Then very lightly smoked salmon. For those who dont like any of the previous foods, there was a sausage wrapped in a bread type dough and baked. Then we finished off with foie gras with spice bread. Through out the entire meal each person probably drank on average 4-5 glasses of champagne/wine! After we ate dinner, we opened presents. This family has a very specific way to open Christmas presents. The story is this: When all the cousins were little, the parents gave all the presents at one time and everyone opened them simultaneously. The oldest cousin (he is now 31 years old) decided that wasnt fun, because no one got to see what everyone else got. So, he decided they would sit four people on a bench in the front of the room, give them each a present, then eveyone watches those four people open their present, they let everyone see what they got, and then four other people are called up to the bench, and it happens all over again! This, as organised as it was, still took a while with 28 people. I got three cook books (one about chocolate, and two about cheese) from Claires mother, another cookbook from Laura about mini desserts, a shirt from Claire, and bath stuff from Julie and Lola. Everyone loved the Alaskan presents my family sent. They especially loved the chocolate oranges, though I didnt explain the purpose of wacking it on the table very well, and they didnt understand why I kept telling them to wack it harder until after they opened it! :) After the presents, we ate dessert. Claire had made three bûche de noëls coffee, pistachio, and chestnut flavored. I know pistachio and chestnut flavor sounds really strange, but the French are really fascinated with pishachio in desserts right now, and chestnuts are the ultimate traditional christmas food. I had also made sugar cookies, which everyone really liked. They thought it was funny how I colored them red and green, and said they had never seen such bright colors on a cookie before! We finally got to bed (after drinking 'un café', of course) around 2:30 am. On Christmas morning, everyone slept in late. When we got up, we ate a small breakfast of bread, butter, and jam. We basically did nothing on Christmas Day. For lunch, we ate three turkeys (I still have no idea how we cooked them all) and chestnuts. After lunch, we played card games and a dice game. I went on a small walk around the town with Laura, Julie, Antoine, and Remy (other cousins). Then I called home and talked to my parents, sister, and grandpa. Then we ate a dinner of soup. The 26th we pretty much went skiing the entire day. Though this time it was at Courcheval, which, apparently is a very well known ski resort. I went with Michel, Claire, Lola, Julie, Antoine, and Lola and Antoines mom and dad, though I forgot their names :). We skied mostly red runs, but at the end I went down the last half of two black runs and didnt fall!! (Though the last half was the easier part of the black run :) ). We got back to Champagny (Courcheval is another town just next to Champagny) around 6:00 pm where we drank hot chocolate and ate dinner, for dessert, we ate an apple tart and a praline tart. The praline tart was really good. French pralines are bright pink. Though I am not exactly sure what they were made out of, I think they were composed of nuts, sugar and probably pink coloring. I asked Claires mother what she had put in it, and she told me crème fraiche (kind of like whipping cream, though solid...)and pralines. The 27th, I stayed around the house and read all my cookbooks. We left that afternoon and got back to Lyon at about 6:30pm. That night we ate dinner with Lena (Michels daughter who spent Christmas with her mom in Lyon), Théo, and his girlfriend Déborah. We ate cheese and bread (cheese fondu) because we hadnt been in the house for more a while, there was no other food! The next morning we got up early and were on the road to Bretange by 8:00am. We were five people (we took a friend of Michel and Claires up with us, Cécile) in Michels very small compact car for 8 hours. We ate a very French lunch of baguette broken into pieces by hand, cheese, and sausage. Though there was also coke, chips, store bought coconut cookies, and some chewy-fruit things. We arrived at the seaport of Lorient at 4:45pm just in time to take the 5:00pm ferry to Groix. Claire and Michels house is located in the 'town' of Locmaria. It had three stories, and the heat takes a while to turn on (a day and a half exactly) so the first night was a little cold. We ate crab and potatoes the first night. They were still alive before Claire cooked them :(. We had to fish the meat out of the claws and legs. I was in the middle of trying to clean out one of the claws when I though I saw it move. I freaked out and threw it across the room and eveyone started laughing! :) The next morning, I walked around the town trying not to get lost. I found two beaches and picked a couple of the millions of shells (illegaly because there was a sign saying it was a natural reserve :) ). A lot of the shells had holes in the middle, though I have no idea why. For lunch we ate grated carrots with a dressing, potatoes, and poireaux fondu (leek fondu made with poireau, white wine, and crème fraiche) and fromage fraise (I dont think there is an equivalent in English, though it is sort of like unflavored, unsweetened yogurt) with homemade blackberry jam...So GOOD!!! :) After lunch I went for a bike ride with Michel to tour the town. That night the parents, Jean-Luc and Françoise, of Victor's (host brother) friend Antoine, and his little brother Victor (host brothers friends brother) arrived at the house. We ate clams for dinner, which I really liked, and also french fries, which is a pretty normal combination here. The next morning Laura and I went to the market with Cécile. Then we ate a lunch of lentil salad with bacon and onions (all in the same pot) and califlower with a bechamel (flour, butter, and milk) sauce aka white sauce. Then Annie, a dance instructor (and friend) of Claires arrived. I have met her once before at an art exhibition the first month or so I was here. We then went on a bike ride Michel style on a dirt path with lots of mud (it rains a lot on Groix) and rocks:). Though it was really pretty! Laura and I took off our socks and shoes and waded in the water at a beach, though we ended up getting our pants soaking because the tide kept coming in at different heights. We started heading back when the rain came in, but we stopped at a marché de noel and ate crepes. That night the last of the New Years guest arrived; the man was on of the people we went hiking with in October, and his wife. We ate spaghetti aux coques (spaghetti with some kind of scallops, I think). The next day (New Years Eve Day) I made panna cotta, and Claire made tiramisu. For dinner, one of their neighbors came over, but just for the aperitif (before dinner drink, usually champagne). He gave Laura and I each a small, glass dolphin which is a product of an artisan on Groix. For dinner, we ate (starting at about 9:30 pm with the aperitif) oysters, shrimp, smoked salmon, two other types of fish, and a potato gratin. For dessert, we ate the panna cotta and the tiramisu. The panna cotta turned out good, but not like a real panna cotta, I had used whipped cream which made it very light and fluffy, unlike the one we ate in Italy which was more gelatinous. The tiramisu was coffee flavored and Claire makes it a lot. Its was good, though I dont like coffee much:) After that, we drank coffee and ate chocolate. The at about 11:45 we went down to the local bar (Pop's Tavern) and at midnight everyone kissed everyone else on the cheeks and said Bonne Année. After that, there was music and drinking and we danced. I left at 2:30 am though some stayed until 5:00 am! The first of January everyone slept in late. When we got up, we ate a small breakfast of bread, butter, and jam and took a walk. We ate lunch at about 4pm of a pulvarized vegetable soup (leeks, potatoes, onions, and carrots) and an omlet. For dessert we ate crepes with nutella, blackberry jam, and beurre selé, which translates into salty butter, but it was more like salty caramel sauce. The next morning, Françoise, Jean-Luc, Victor, and Cécile left. Laura and I went to Pop's Tavern with Claires laptop to use the internet. In the afternoon, we went on a bikeride to a phare (land lighthouse). For dinner, Claire invited over her other two neighbors. We first drank champagne and ate bread with a salmon spread. Then we ate salad and fish (cooked completely whole, I think the only part missing were the eyes), cheese, and then chocolate mousse (made by Claire). The next morning, everyone left woke up at 7:00 am or earlier to get ready to catch the ferry to the mainland of Francy at 8:30am. The boat arrived around 9:25, and we drove the rest of the morning and all afternoon to Lyon. We arrived at about 5:45 pm, and ate dinner in front of the TV watching a French moving called Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement). It was about a woman looking for her finacé after he disappeared while serving in the WWI. I didnt understand much, but she found him in the end in good health, though he had lost all his memory and didnt remember her.
Today was the first day back to school after the vacation. I started at 8:00am . During the night, it snowed about 3 inches. Yay for snow, boo for the absence of buses. I didnt know that there were not going to be any buses this morning (it was too dangerous for them) so I walked to the bus stop and saw the sign. So I walked all the way to school in slushy snow and got my feet soaking. Though I finished at noon, so that was really nice. Tomorrow I am going to eat lunch with Laurie. Were going to eat Macaroni and Cheese (the American kind) because my parents sent me some because she has never eaten it before:) Now I am going to go to the tabaco shop and buy some credit for my cell phone because I dont have anymore.
Im sorry this is more like a short book that a blog post. I will add pictures very soon to go with it!