Okay, so I know that, one, I haven't written a post since November, and, two, that Christmas was a month ago. I'm sorry! I just simply haven't done anything - at all - so I couldn't write about anything. I have no excuse for a month's delay, however. Anyway, it's here now, so read on!
My first Christmas away from home and my family naturally felt quite strange, and because the twenty-fifth itself was quiet with few people around, I got a little homesick. On the twenty-fourth, though, we had a big potluck in the evening, so Christmas Eve felt much more festive than Christmas Day itself.
The house was very quiet for most of December, from around the 12th until after New Year. Mark went to South America with his brother, Jamie finished her degree so moved out the week before Christmas, and George and Ian both went home to spend the holidays with their families. So the entire middle floor was completely empty for a while. Nico from downstairs, too, has spent nearly the last month and a half in France - I think he'll be back in about a week. Anais, Jocelyn, Adam, Claude, Audrey and I spent a couple of evenings watching films, which was really nice.
In France and other French-speaking places, the main celebratory meal, réveillon, is held on Christmas Eve, which is why we had the potluck then. The turkey roasting all day definitely made the house smell like Christmas! Anais invited some of her friends (Aram, former Zenhousemate Justine, Aline, and Matt), to join us, so twelve people were there over the course of the evening. Jocelyn and Adam had prior plans so didn't come, but Naomi was here early on, along with her friend Fernie, and Peyton - whom, despite his living downstairs for as long as I've been here, I had never even heard of, let alone set eyes upon, before being unlucky enough to pull his name from the Secret Santa hat a month before! They three left after a while, in order to spend time with other friends and family, and Matt went out later to pick up his friend Eric.
We'd been snacking on vegetable sticks with Claude's guacamole, and had foie gras (duck or goose liver, similar to pâté) as a starter, but I think it was about 10pm by the time we ate the actual meal. Turkey, roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips, a Minnesotan dish of rice and vegetables, apple and chestnut stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Of course, everything was amazing (except sadly the rice wasn't cooked) and everyone had a good time. Before having Audrey's chocolate Yule log for dessert, we played "Who Am I" for a while, which was fun. I was a bit nervous about the fact that there were going to be people I didn't know, but Aline, Matt and Eric were much easier to feel comfortable around than Jamie's half-drunk friends at the previous potluck in October - so it was fine. I actually really enjoyed it, it was a very pleasant evening, which came to a close around 1am.
Christmas Day wouldn't be right, for me, without grapefruit for breakfast. I don't know why or when it started, but for years it's been a tradition in my family. So of course I'd bought one. But just having half a grapefruit for breakfast would be silly - so I had my usual milky porridge as well, making it much nicer by adding a couple of spoonfuls of my cranberry sauce. Yum :)
Like I said, the twenty-fifth was strange. With the late night and absence of an early morning barge-in-the-bedroom-door-and-switch-the-bright-light-on-with-a-"Get up! It's Christmas!" wake up call (hahaha), I slept 'til about mid-morning. I'd been sent a couple of presents so opened those before breakfast, listened to some Christmas music and went on Skype in the early afternoon, but apart from those things it was a very quiet, not-very-festive day. Claude went out early to spend the day with his sister, and Jocelyn and Adam were with friends, but Justine came over before lunch to help Anais, Audrey and I with all the leftovers :)
Boxing Day was much less quiet, as several of Jocelyn's friends came over for an all-day movie marathon. I didn't join them, too many unknown people and too little space. Anais left for San Francisco a day or two after that, I left on the 30th for a couple of weeks at home, Claude left for New Zealand, Audrey prepared to go to San Francisco, and poor excited Mark returned from South America to an empty house. He only had to wait a few days for people to start coming back, though. When I arrived back from England on the 12th, everyone but George and Claude were back and new housemate Marisa had moved in. Back to normal, now, though!
