Thursday 25 December 2008

Le Reveillon

We managed to get to Nadia's by 9pm last night, with two very excited princesses (they chose their ozn dresses and both zwent with the fairy option, which suited me as no ironing! everyone complimented them, especially as I had struggled over their hair!), two delicious looking buches de noel, two bottles of jus and some ordinaire (a delicious fizzy aniseed drink unique to Guadeloupe) and a fruit salad. We spent the day making these, cleaning, wrapping presents, trying to persuade the girls to sleep (CassCass did, LissaLou didn't, and yet made it through till 1am! I admire her resilience!)
There were about 20 of us (outdone by the French side who had 30 plus!) including Bertie's sisters Nadia, Pierrette and Felicianne with their families and his brother Richard and his family. We tried to persuade Papy to come but no can do!
Foodwise, I have learnt through my trips here that you really have to restrain yourself, as the starter for me constitutes a good sized meal! We had fried malanga and carrot patties, sausage rolls, boudin, salad and ham. The main course was rice with pois d'angole and yams, and various types of porc and lamb. Then around midnight we enjoyed our fruit salad and buche (nice one Bertie!) before opening the presents. The kids had been running around and having a great time all evening, including some turns at musical chairs and dancing. I was amazed that our girls made it till then, must have been adrenaline (or their half a glass of coke that I allowed them!). The tradition here is just for kids to have presents, the adults get theirs at the New Year. So there were several thrilled little children opening their boxes with delight. LissaLou and CassCass got their shoes (and spent the next hour taping back and forth in them) and bible, and a baking set and tea set from their aunts. What impressed me most was each child only had 2 or 3 presents and was perfectly happy with that. It meant that they concentrated on what they had, rather than chucking aside and moving on to the next one. Baby JoJo slept through the whole affair!
Then by 1pm CassCass had tripped over and cut her lip all over her beautiful fairy dress (can I recommend my other great discovery for removing stains, savon de Marseilles!) and was a tearful girl, so we headed home and collapsed into bed. LissaLou wondered if we could play with the presents when we got home, but was fast asleep on arrival!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am wondering who the 20 were as opposed to the 'French side'Do you mean guadeloupien as opposed to french. I'm sure it can't be English! ( let alone Scottish!!)
I like the sound of the system for presents but I'm sure I would never make it till 1am! Just as well I didn't stay for Christmas. Of course I could have kept Papy company.

Hevs said...

Sorry, i meant there were 20 members of the family meeting up here and 30 members of the family meeting up at Sylvia's in france! Tee hee, i think our company was more interesting than papys!

Anonymous said...

30 at Sylvia's - wonderful! That would be fun! Now I know why she has all these settees!
I'm still marvelling at the French/Antilles hospitality. Think the weather has something to do with it.