Christmas Snapshot

We celebrated Christmas pretty much for a solid week.  We started out last Saturday at Mike's mother's and shared a meal with her family.  There was a huge crowd of cousins, aunts, and uncles and more food than you could shake a fork at.  Really.

We were loud and the children were rowdy (almost as rowdy as the adults) and we ate till we could barely breathe.  I think there were almost forty people in attendance.  It was great fun, there were lots of tales, lots of smiles, and loads of food was consumed.

Mike and I shared a quiet Christmas Eve and it was warm and quiet and cozy.  We turned on the logs and dozed in front of the television.

Then, after sleeping late Christmas morning, we had a couple of Google Hangout sessions with a couple of the granddaughters, scrambled a dozen eggs, and zipped up to Mike's mother's house to share the morning with his family.  His brother's three grown children were in attendance and two of them had their little ones (and almost grown ones) in tow.  Mike's son and his family were there, too.  We ranged in age from 4+months to 80+years.  The children tore into a few gifts we had wrapped for them to enjoy and the adults played a game of Dirty Santa.  Mike and I came home and once again crashed in the den to doze with a full belly.  We enjoyed a phone call from our oldest grandson (15-months-old) who barely had time to tell us that he had gotten presents from, "Ho-Ho-Ho," because he was too busy playing with his treasures.

Friday evening, we converged on my parents' house.  My sister's family of three grown daughters (one of whom is married and one of whom brought a significant other) and my two children and four rowdy grandchildren kicked up a ruckus there.  There were almost twenty of us there and there was at least enough food for fifty but we did our best to consume it all!  Then, wrapping paper was flying as we discovered gifts of stitchery, clothing, toys, and the green stuff (and I don't mean veggies - this was bank-worthy green stuff).  The whole crew pitched in to store the leftovers and Brenda washed dishes.  I dried enough dishes to save face after supervising the flying turtle racers and basketball bouncer.  We left with stuffed tummies, stuffed pockets, and a tub or two of delicousness for later.

Saturday evening, three of our children and most of the rowdy grandchildren convened here at our house.  Mike was the primary chef, frying up bacon, tenderloin, and sausage and scrambling eggs to be smothered under home-baked biscuits.  I had assembled a breakfast casserole and fruit salad and poured some pancakes onto the griddle and we feasted on breakfast for supper.  Again, there was enough food for at least a score of folks and the dozen here tried to polish it all off.  Then, the wrapping paper flew and we all shared gifts.  We traded electronics, clothing, toys, and gift cards for further shopping.  The stockings held snacks for later as well as jewelry, lip balm, and other treasures.

It was a fabulous year for celebrating family, laughter, and love.  We feel ultra-blessed and hope you have, too!