My belated Christmas Eve photos

This year our friends Coco and Wilhelm kindly invited us over for a feast on Christmas Eve. Everything was perfect, and as we always do, we had a great time with plenty of laughs. On Christmas day Joelle and I hosted a big meal at our place, and I struggled to even think of food and wine as our guests were due to arrive at 1PM the next day.

Besides being a food geek, I admit that I completely enjoy a formal table on special occasions and this one was amazing. Coco reached into his special storage for his special collection and everything was just right. I have a hard time saying "no" to great food so I was in major trouble in Christmas Eve. In fact, even with the lousy weather today it's time to get back out on the bike to work off the meal from a week ago. Well worth it though.

First off, the traditional creche.


Our host, Coco. He's camera shy so it wasn't easy snapping a photo of him. Coco prepared the dinner and set the table. Absolute perfection!


Our friend Wilhelm starts the evening by pouring the Champagne. He's one of my cooking friends who always likes to try something new in the kitchen. I regularly use his German "mustard soup" for parties and he kindly brings me Bavarian German mustard. He also hand delivers white asparagus from northern Germany during the season and despite local beliefs, the northern German white asparagus is hands down the best in the world. Period.


As we've come to expect from our friends Coco and Wilhelm, another stunningly set table. Coco is French old school in a very good way, and presents the most beautiful table arrangements every time. For this meal, he outdid himself and was up at 7AM to start organizing the Christmas decorations for our dinner. Even though Coco is not an oyster person (they're a big Christmas tradition in France), he still presented this perfect plate of oysters, shucking all 48 of them by himself. Di-vine!


A close-up of the table setting. The celadon plates are quite old as are the glasses. We both love celadon, so it was fun eating on these antique dishes.


Jojo and our friend Serge having a laugh as the plate of foie gras with fig arrives (foie gras is another huge holiday tradition over here). It was about this time we started to feel a bit stuffed but how can you pass on this?


A beautiful stuffed chapon (capon) with purée de marrons (chestnut puree) on one side and purée de céleri-rave on the other.


And finally, the ice cream Bûche de Noël. I'm not much of a cake person - especially the traditional bûche with icing, or just about any cake with icing - but this cute little ice cream bûche with the Christmas tree inside was lovely.