Joyeux Noel!!

When The Princess was born, and we were living in Glendive, Montana, we started a tradition of picking a different country each year, and take the food and traditions of that country and celebrate these traditions on Christmas Eve.

Our first Christmas Eve we celebrated and English Christmas. 17 years later, we are gathered together in our home in Kellogg preparing a French dinner.

Here is this year's menu:

Appetizer

Gougere--Gruyere Ring

Soup

Pumpkin Soup

Salad

Radis Rapes--Radish and Watercress Salad
Bread

Brioche

Main Dish

Coq Au Vin Rouge--Chicken in Red Wine Sauce

Vegetable

Ratatouille--French Vegetable Ragout

Dessert

Bouche de Noel and Cream Puffs

Only a few disaster happened as the meal was prepared, and were quickly remedied. You can read about the dessert fiasco IEG shared when she arrived from Kettle Falls with her husband JEJ here.

I also had a little problem with the bread, the Brioche. When making my schedule of when to start preparing things, I hadn't read the Brioche recipe closely enough, and I should have made the dough and let it set 8 hours before baking. Oops. Oh well, I thought to myself, we'll just have it for Christmas Day dinner. As soon as this decision was made, the mixer quit working. Plan B...send PKR to the store for some baguettes. When he returned, no baguettes, but there were freshly made croissants at our local Yokes grocery. They worked perfectly.

One of my biggest surprises preparing this dinner was finding French wine at Walmart in Smelterville. Who knew?

On Christmas Eve in France, children leave their shoes by the fireplace to be filled with gifts from Pere Noel. The Princess, Z2 and Kiki Aru set their shoes in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve.

And on Christmas morning, their shoes were filled by Pere Noel.