Of course I have to address the question 'how was Christmas different in Belgium?'. And actually, it was more different than I expected. Mostly because of the fact that it's just not as important as it is in the US. Kids don't believe in Father Christmas and neither do they recieve piles of presents because they do believe in St. Nicolas who does come with piles of presents on Dec. 6.
We had a very nice celebration. Christmas was at our house this year, with all the family scheduled to come for a huge dinner and a secret santa exchange of presents (which they call 'cacahuete' which is literally 'peanut' - don't ask me why). We only ended up with about half the family though (still a good 17 people) because the snow kepts so many people away. From the time the guests started arriving at 7 until after midnight we just worked our way through meal after meal. Piles of appetizers, then two main courses, then dessert. It was a thouroughly good evening.
Merry Christmas to everybody!