The International Christmas Extravaganza.

Holidays away from your family can always be difficult for everyone.  That is why we were so lucky this year to be adopted by three families from all over the globe.  To start we had  a  superb French Fête.  Guillaume was the first person we met in Paris and he assured us we would spend a traditional French Christmas with him and his family.  His family was so funny and we had a great time learning about and trying cuisine from all over France (including escargot).   His mom is a brilliant cook and even though she might not be used to cooking vegetarian food she sure made some wonderful tofu stuffed mushrooms, ratatouille, and whipped truffles.   Included was the traditional French cheese course,  featuring one of the stinkiest cheeses in the world, which comes from the north of France.  This families hospitality already had us both entranced, but by the time Guillaume's mother brought out her homemade berry ice cream, Chocolate Mousse and Cake we wanted to be adopted for real.  

After we said goodbye to Guillaume's family we went to stop by a Mexican Fiesta at our friend Alfredo's house.  We caught the last  bits of some authentic guacamole, and rum punch that helped build our french speaking courage.  We put on some salsa/80's/mariachi music mix and had a dance party that lasted to the wee hours of the morning.  

On Christmas  we  headed over to our old place in the 18th to spend an evening with Belinda and Helen for an Australian/British Christmas dinner.  Helen was in extreme Christmas spirit and we spent the evening decorating the house, listening to old Christmas classics and Judy even dressed up as Santa.  The night ended with a good game of Pictionary (British Edition) and even though neither of us knew what a paint pot or cricket ball was, we still won.