Joyeux Noel

Christmas Eve day is probably my favourite day. You can imagine that this year has been very different from the years past... Today "Bear" (my Kiwi roommate made it to Brussels for the holidays for a Collett Christmas), Kendall and i trekked into a snowy Brussels Centraal to explore and visit some Christmas markets. I must mention that there has been an abundance of snow here... Obviously compared to Canadian standards...its quite a bit of snow, but no need to be closing the streets... Well we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Today was declared a National holiday and buses stopped running and we slipped and slid our way through the streets of the central city (I managed to keep my balance, most of the time).

My mother's side of the family is french Canadian. My grandmother is from a small town in rural Quebec called Sainte Patrice in Beaurivage, Quebec. In my family we have always celebrated Christmas Day (as most families do)with turkey and stuffing, etc... But we've also celebrated Christmas Eve... Or reveillon. My mum had quite the spread prepared when we got in from our long day in the fresh air. Cheeses, fresh veggies and dip, shrimp, sausage rolls, scotch eggs (for the Englishman in the house) and of course, my favourite, tourtiere. Lucky too that we have managed to keep our tradition because we had an unexpected guest this holiday season. A distant relative that my mother managed to run into at the Canadian Maple sugar Christmas market stand in Place de Sainte Catharine in Brussels. Simon is from Beaurivage, Quebec... More specifically Sainte Patrice and he and my mother share the same great grandfather... Crazy small world, init?