Monday, December 25th, 2006

The 12 Courses of Christmas Eve

posted by lizzie    « 2 Comments »    tied to Uncategorized   

Ever since my my oldest siblings were in Junior High, French assignments have been a part of our Christmas holiday. Sometimes we eat a French breakfast (bread and hot chocolate) every day for a week. Sometimes we sing Christmas carols in French on Christmas Eve. Sometimes we stay up late keeping vigil over the Nativity scene until midnight when we put Baby Jesus in the manger and go to bed. This last activity has become part of the family lore as one time it led to Isaac’s toe being severely cut in a freak accident involving a bed frame and a piece of wax. Up until tonight, that was the pinnacle of French assignment excitement. This is because tonight Nate, my youngest brother and the last to participate in the French- homework-over-Christmas-break tradition, decided to out-do us all by choosing the assignment the other ten of us managed to avoid: making a 12 course meal with 12 desserts for dinner on Christmas Eve.

I don’t know why Nate decided it was a good idea to add eleven more courses and eleven more desserts to our normal French onion soup and Buche de Noel meal, but he did. This was difficult enough without the rule that everything served had to be “French,” although with a bit more advanced planning, and perhaps if Christmas Eve had not fallen on a Sunday, it may have been a bit easier. But it wasn’t easy at all, and so we sat down to dinner with roughly 11 courses and 8 desserts. With all 11 of us putting our heads together (and especially with two returned missionaries from France), surely we could come up with another course and four more desserts. After several comments like, “Too bad the green beans in the cupboard aren’t French cut,” and, “Are you counting the water as a course already?” and, “How do you say ‘horseradish mustard’ in French?” We finally got up to 12. Nevermind that we had to split the carrots and celery into two different courses, or that the chocolates we’d been snacking on since church became a dessert, or that only one person had enough room to eat one of the cookies that we offered up as another dessert: the assignment was completed successfully. What took more than 24 hours to prepare (we did get a headstart on the French onion soup and Buche de Noel), took only an hour and a half to eat.

And in the process, Nate may have eclipsed Isaac as the king of French project adventures.

Our “French” Meal:
1. French onion soup
2. French bread
3. Crackers and camembert cheese
4. Crackers and brie cheese
5. Olives
6. Celery
7. Carrots
8. Tossed salad with French dressing
9. Red grape juice
10. Potato salad
11. Pumpkin chocolate chip bread
12. Cranberry Orange bread

Our “French” Desserts:
1. Buche de Noel
2. Crepes
3. Strawberry yogurt
4. Peaches
5. Oranges
6. Clementines
7. Chocolates
8. More Chocolate
9. Almond Roca
10. White grape juice
11. Cookies
12. Peppermint sticks

Comments

  1. Jodie says:
    December 25, 2006 at 12:01 pm

    I love how the pumpkin chocolate chip bread is considered one of the courses.

  2. kareena says:
    December 25, 2006 at 4:36 pm

    Dear Liz and Micah,
    I am glad to see that you made it to Utah! As much as I love the sun of Hawaii, the cold of Utah makes it feel like home(sorry Micah, I know you don’t like the cold.) I am glad your Christmas Eve was filled with food and fun of course!(of courses…more like it) I hope you have a Merry Christmas!!! And-we need to meet up and have a little get together! My mother is dying to meet you and see your little baby tummy…that really isn’t there you skinny minnie! Miss you!

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