“We are not going to Belgium for Christmas this year.” My words hung in the air, reflected in my daughters’ wide eyes and disappointed faces. What became our holiday ritual had been paused for three long years during the pandemic, until we visited my family and friends again last December, and my girls experienced everything they love in my birth country.
I came to the U.S. for my Master’s degree back in the nineties and never left. I always felt welcome in the company of my fellow film school students, who taught me, among many things, that shorts and flip flops are perfectly okay until late in the fall, that you can call your professor by their first name, and that you cannot possibly be serious if you eat your apple pie without warming it up and adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. They welcomed me in their houses where I experienced my first Thanksgiving celebration. What a wonderful, extra opportunity to gather around a big table with family and a feast! But because there is balance in the universe, I found out to my great dismay that Americans don’t celebrate la Saint-Nicolas on December 6, and I never put my shoes under the chimney here, next to cookies for the man and carrots for his donkey. There is no extra gift magically coming my way on the 6th, and no cougnole to be found in the many local French bakeries around. Soupir…
Over the years in my adoptive country, I built a diverse circle of friends from all around the world. My ex-husband and father of my kids is from Brazil, and I am still fully a part of his family. One of my best local friends is half Russian and half Ukrainian. And of course, I work surrounded by French colleagues, and our French Library counts many citizens of francophone and non-francophone countries. How lucky we all are!
Nowadays, my family’s Thanksgiving is a two-part affair. We start with a lunch with our Brazilian relatives, with a buffet of poultry dishes in cream sauce, beef stew, bacalhau (salted cod), Brazilian lasagna, a farofa based side (toasted cassava), mixed veggies, beans, and of course rice. I (not so) fondly remember when I first invited my Brazilian family to an American Thanksgiving at my house, for which I prepared six traditional sides. One of the guests looked around and found it very disappointing that I did not make any rice. I learned, and it is now the running joke that if that person comes to Thanksgiving, they are supposed to bring a gigantic bowl of rice. Desserts include Brazilian flan and a tower of their condensed-milk based pralines, brigadeiros.
Our evening Thanksgiving stop is at my Russian-Ukrainian friend’s house. She also immigrated to the U.S. decades ago and is always surrounding herself with a global crowd, including New Englanders, Californians, Latin Americans, Eastern Europeans, and her Belgian boyfriend (although he is from the wrong side. You know, the one where they don’t speak French! ) We therefore enjoy a very eclectic table of colorful dishes, including a traditional turkey, stewed meats, cold fish and beet layered dishes, mixed salads with exotic ingredients, yogurt and dill based side dips, beautiful pies and foreign pralines.
When spending the holidays in Belgium, our feast starts with a plethora of cold and hot appetizers (ah! Apéricubes, boudin and saucisse sèche!) Around the table, we start with lobsters (so much smaller than the Maine ones), and other seafood including the impossible to find here crevettes grises. Sometimes there is soup, then the turkey with gratin dauphinois, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and a salade verte. No meal would be complete without a cheese course featuring staples such as Maredsous, Vieux de Chimay, or Bouquet des Moines. Finally, a homemade chocolate or coffee flavored Bûche de Noël is presented, sometimes accompanied by an exotic (mango or passion fruit) sherbet Bûche.
We open presents throughout the evening, on the 24th. The 25th is dedicated to recovering and visiting the relatives we did not spend the 24th with.
One of the best gifts I gave my kids is the gift of multiculturalism. They are trilingual and have traveled to various countries, always curious, always trying to understand other people’s way of living. In the same way, I like to think that we, at the French Library, contribute to fostering our community’s curiosity for other cultures. As we are all preparing to celebrate the end of 2023, I want to wish you a wonderful holiday season, and thank you for being part of this rich community. It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces at our Members Holiday Party a few days ago! Whether you will travel or stay home, eat turkey or something more exotic, we can’t wait to hear your stories in the new year.
With long-time member Laraine Bautze at our Member Holiday Party
And if you are still struggling with your shopping list, consider supporting a bright, multicultural world by gifting your loved ones a membership to the French Library!
Happy holidays,
Barbara
I came to the U.S. for my Master’s degree back in the nineties and never left. I always felt welcome in the company of my fellow film school students, who taught me, among many things, that shorts and flip flops are perfectly okay until late in the fall, that you can call your professor by their first name, and that you cannot possibly be serious if you eat your apple pie without warming it up and adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. They welcomed me in their houses where I experienced my first Thanksgiving celebration. What a wonderful, extra opportunity to gather around a big table with family and a feast! But because there is balance in the universe, I found out to my great dismay that Americans don’t celebrate la Saint-Nicolas on December 6, and I never put my shoes under the chimney here, next to cookies for the man and carrots for his donkey. There is no extra gift magically coming my way on the 6th, and no cougnole to be found in the many local French bakeries around. Soupir…
Over the years in my adoptive country, I built a diverse circle of friends from all around the world. My ex-husband and father of my kids is from Brazil, and I am still fully a part of his family. One of my best local friends is half Russian and half Ukrainian. And of course, I work surrounded by French colleagues, and our French Library counts many citizens of francophone and non-francophone countries. How lucky we all are!
Nowadays, my family’s Thanksgiving is a two-part affair. We start with a lunch with our Brazilian relatives, with a buffet of poultry dishes in cream sauce, beef stew, bacalhau (salted cod), Brazilian lasagna, a farofa based side (toasted cassava), mixed veggies, beans, and of course rice. I (not so) fondly remember when I first invited my Brazilian family to an American Thanksgiving at my house, for which I prepared six traditional sides. One of the guests looked around and found it very disappointing that I did not make any rice. I learned, and it is now the running joke that if that person comes to Thanksgiving, they are supposed to bring a gigantic bowl of rice. Desserts include Brazilian flan and a tower of their condensed-milk based pralines, brigadeiros.
Our evening Thanksgiving stop is at my Russian-Ukrainian friend’s house. She also immigrated to the U.S. decades ago and is always surrounding herself with a global crowd, including New Englanders, Californians, Latin Americans, Eastern Europeans, and her Belgian boyfriend (although he is from the wrong side. You know, the one where they don’t speak French! ) We therefore enjoy a very eclectic table of colorful dishes, including a traditional turkey, stewed meats, cold fish and beet layered dishes, mixed salads with exotic ingredients, yogurt and dill based side dips, beautiful pies and foreign pralines.
When spending the holidays in Belgium, our feast starts with a plethora of cold and hot appetizers (ah! Apéricubes, boudin and saucisse sèche!) Around the table, we start with lobsters (so much smaller than the Maine ones), and other seafood including the impossible to find here crevettes grises. Sometimes there is soup, then the turkey with gratin dauphinois, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and a salade verte. No meal would be complete without a cheese course featuring staples such as Maredsous, Vieux de Chimay, or Bouquet des Moines. Finally, a homemade chocolate or coffee flavored Bûche de Noël is presented, sometimes accompanied by an exotic (mango or passion fruit) sherbet Bûche. 
We open presents throughout the evening, on the 24th. The 25th is dedicated to recovering and visiting the relatives we did not spend the 24th with. One of the best gifts I gave my kids is the gift of multiculturalism. They are trilingual and have traveled to various countries, always curious, always trying to understand other people’s way of living. In the same way, I like to think that we, at the French Library, contribute to fostering our community’s curiosity for other cultures. As we are all preparing to celebrate the end of 2023, I want to wish you a wonderful holiday season, and thank you for being part of this rich community. It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces at our Members Holiday Party a few days ago! Whether you will travel or stay home, eat turkey or something more exotic, we can’t wait to hear your stories in the new year.
With long-time member Laraine Bautze at our Member Holiday Party
And if you are still struggling with your shopping list, consider supporting a bright, multicultural world by gifting your loved ones a membership to the French Library!
Happy holidays,
Barbara
Barbara Bouquegneau
President and Executive Director
Barbara has worked at the French Library for more than 26 years. Barbara has represented the FL and Alliance Française of Boston throughout the years and was vice-president of the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA. She is committed to pursuing the extraordinary mission of the French Library and believes that the Francophone world is worth exploring in all its different cultures.
