Tree Decorating

On December 1st we decorate the tree, eat junk food, watch a Christmas light display from Texas on the TV, and then watch "Elf."

This year, since we we had good electricity, we brought out our raclette. The word "raclette" comes from the French verb racler, which means to scrape (you can see one of the scrapers on the black raclette at the bottom of the photo below). Doug and I heard about this for the first time when we went to visit his brother and sister-in-law who were living in Germany at the time, and we loved it. 

It's like a mini-grill, but more. You can cook meat, veggies (or whatever) on the top grill while you are melting cheese (there is even a special cheese called raclette) in little trays on heaters UNDER the grill.

The amazing thing this year is that we invited some single ladies over for our tree decorating night, and two of them were from Holland, and they have such fond memories of using raclettes in their own homes, so it was special for them as well. As an added bonus, they brought some Dutch treats for us as well.  I just don't have a picture of them.

Wrapping our red material from Kenya around the center pole gives it just the right touch.  Kudos to Doug for all the decorating items he has bought over the years.  I do not have an eye for any of it.  

And to all a good night...