Holiday Family Traditions

As we're originally from France, our Family Holiday Celebrations differ in some subtle ways with mainstream American traditions. Yet over the years, we have weaved them into the local practice and today we have something quite unique, very healthy and fun at the same time.

Typically, French folks are more New-Year-centric than Christmas-oriented and New-Year celebrations are a much bigger deal; as an example Happy New Year Wishes can last the whole month of January. With these observations in mind, I will attempt to explain how the Holiday Season typically unfold for us. Because of my upbringing, my entire career and my playful retirement years, skiing occupies the centerpiece of our Holiday Season.

Even though we can ski all winter long, we make sure to come out and mark this celebratory period by leaving our own ski imprints on the local slopes; some might call them “garlands” but they are tracks nonetheless! Until this year, our daughter Charlotte who lived in California for many years and a ninety minute flight away, was in the midst of this joyful period; this year however, after accepting a new position in our Nation's Capital only a few weeks ago, she had not accrued enough vacation time to make a visit all the way to Utah worth her while. This will have to wait until next year.

Our son Thomas, his wife Juliette and our grandson Finn were present the Sunday before Christmas to mark their returns on the skis and to the slopes. The day, as it often does, was marked by a wonderful Raclette meal. We do Raclette, because it is an hearty meal that is perfect in winter and our son as well as his wife are vegetarians. There, I will have to digress, however and explain once and for all what that delicious food is all about...

In fact, that alpine dish was already mentioned in some medieval writings as a particularly nutritious food consumed by peasants in the mountains of the French-speaking area of Switzerland's Valais canton and of on the other side of the Alpine divide, the Savoy region where I hail from. The name itself comes from the French verb “racler” which mean “to scrape.” In that case, it is cheese that is been scraped from the open surface of an eighteen-inch half-wheel of Raclette cheese, which open surface is heated until it melts into some divine taste.

You can now understand why most of our family entertainment revolves around a wheel of Raclette cheese. This of course leads us to Christmas Eve, that takes us to the Salt Lake Valley were a wonderful dinner and present unwrapping takes place and all the event revolves around our four-year old grandson Finn. The excitement is palpable and the spurs of joy endless as the many presents get unwrapped... This year, a perfectly timed snow storm made for driving down to the Valley a bit more interesting and kept me well-focused on the road.

I must confess that my wife and I didn't have the fortitude to wait until Christmas Eve for opening our own presents. We were a bit concerned about the upcoming roll over of the ancient Maya calendar on December 21 and didn't want to take any chance, so our own presents have been put to good use since the beginning of that month.

This said, I received a special present from my son that has to do with DNA and will finally tell me where I come from After December 25th, we get a short reprieve during which there is always more skiing, additional great snow (another Deer Valley Holiday tradition) and there is barely any room for celebrating my birthday sandwiched somewhere between Christmas and New Year, just before we tip into a brand new year.

By the time 2013 rolls over, we have long been “Party Exhausted” and don't have much energy left for celebrating and going all-out. Granted, there's always room for a fine meal, for a delightful sip of Champagne and then it's time for some serious work; our winter ski season finally begins in earnest!