It's Me, Sara Louise

For those of you who have been with me for awhile, I’m sure you’re looking at the title of this post and are all like, “first Raclette, my hiney the first Raclette!” And you would be right, because heaven knows, I’ve been around the Raclette block more than once. But this post is about the first Raclette in Texas, ours anyway.

It all started a couple of months before Christmas, when I knew that without a doubt, I’d be getting Gregory a Raclette for his present. It seemed like the perfect choice, December being prime Raclette season and all. Plus, it would bring Gregory a little bit of France to Texas, and I’m not going to lie, I wanted that little bit of cheesy France too… it was a win, win.

As the holidays approached and Christmas meal plans came together, I decided that Gregory’s opening of his Raclette grill on Christmas morning would only be the first part of his Christmas present, because the second part would be delicious Raclette for our Christmas dinner (I like to give the gift of food). My mother agreed (mostly because of the easy peasy nature of it all I’m sure) and that was that.

After Gregory arrived and the holiday grew closer, my anticipation and glee grew as well, and every time I’d here Gregory speak of the wonders of Raclette to our Texan friends, my heart would pound in excitement. (By the way, you’d be surprised at how often Gregory can work the word ‘Raclette’ into a conversation with people here, like the time he was scooping Queso onto a chip and he looked over at Miss Vicki and said, “have you had Raclette? You need Raclette. The next time I come I bring the Raclette.” And Miss Vicki and I smiled at each other because we knew that the Raclette was coming.)

Then early one morning, a couple of days before Christmas, I ever so gently lifted the duvet, and slipped out of bed as quietly as possible trying my best not to wake up Gregory, because if he stirred he’d ask, “where do you go Skippy” and I didn’t want to have to make something up because he’d insist on going with me anyway, and he couldn’t because I was making a super stealth trip to the grocery story for Raclette supplies.

By 7:30, I was back home, wrapping meats and cheese in tin foil and hiding the delectable parcels at the bottom of the vegetable crisper because of course he wouldn’t look there, and saying that the breakfast taco line at Mary’s Tacos was so long and that’s where I had been for the past hour. My cheesy plan was coming together and Gregory was none the wiser!

Finally Christmas morning arrived and I was so excited and Gregory opened his present (which had been hiding at the back of the tree because Gregory cannot be trusted to not shake things and guess wildly) and then he was excited too and Fifty was excited because we were excited and we were all excited! And when I told Gregory that part two of his present was that we were having Raclette for Christmas dinner it was practically pandemonium!

I was happy, Gregory was happy, my mother was happy (Raclette for Christmas dinner means she didn’t have to cook again, and since we do our fancy pants Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve every year, we’ve decided that going forward, Christmas day will be all about Raclette… that grill is the gift that keeps on giving), and we were all so happy that we had Raclette, like three times, in one week. So technically this post could have been called, The First, Second, and Third Raclette. The end.