Christmas thoughts

Christmas was a bit unusual this year. We had three separate gift exchanges – all called “Christmas” by the participants. We celebrated Christmas in Honduras with Nate, Cori and the kids while we were there over the Thanksgiving holiday. We celebrated Christmas with Andrew, Britany and the twins the weekend before Christmas while they were here with us. We celebrated Christmas on the actual morning of Christmas – just me, Mama and Victoria. None of those separate celebrations included very many gifts. All of them included family. All were fun moments. It was interesting to stretch out the gift-giving over four weeks rather than squeeze it all into one morning. We will have to try to do the same next year.

Christmas Day was a flurry of cooking, cleaning and rearranging the house to accommodate the families coming over to eat lunch with us. We were expecting up to eighteen. Twelve adults and six children. We ended up having only fourteen. We invited the Echeveria family but Sam was sick on Christmas Day, so they did not come. We certainly had enough food – brisket, smoked turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, macaroni salad, cranberries and deviled eggs. There were also several desserts, cookies, banana muffins, etc.

Everyone ate at least twice through the afternoon and evening and we still had a huge amount of leftovers. Victoria took a large plate of the three meats to the Echeveria family, so they would not miss out completely on the dinner. We sent a lot of the ham home with Trace and Krystal. I am ham-ed out after eating it over the last weekend while Brittany and her crew was with us. We sent a lot of the brisket home with Seth and Gabriella. We will turn the rest into chopped brisket to make into sandwiches one evening. We sent some desserts home with Mr. Plumley. We sent almost a whole cherry pie home with Grandma. Grandpa did not come. He was not feeling up to it. Still we had to freeze some of the leftover meats and feed some of the macaroni salad to the chickens and pigs. The entire turkey carcass was fed to the dogs in stages. They love it when I carve up a turkey.  I feel certain we will be feeding more to the animals over the next few days. We cannot eat that much ourselves. Thank the Lord for freezers – and the animals. Noting will go to waste.

Last night, after church, Mama and I just sat for a few minutes. Actually, she had been sitting most of the day. One of the activities most of the adults got started on Christmas Night was a putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle. It was more than two thirds completed when everyone left for the night. Mama worked most of the day on that puzzle. She was down to about twenty pieces when I got home. I helped her get three or four of those pieces in place, so we could get it done. It is sitting completed on the table waiting for me to glue it together in celebration of the completed project. I did not realize at first, but the box the puzzle came in contained four such puzzles. Victoria, who had gotten home too late to go to church with us, had cleaned off the granite topped table and started a second puzzle.

Kira and Kobe got out of the yard Christmas night. Someone had left the gate at the garage open and they took full advantage of the exit offered them. It could have been my fault. I had carried cardboard – a lot of it – from the garage to put on the fire we had just roasted marshmallows on. A gentle rain began falling right at dark putting a halt to our smores party. But the fire was a good opportunity to clear the cardboard out of the garage. I do not specifically remember closing the gate, but I had been very careful through the day to do so. Nathan, Trace’s youngest, told his parents it was his fault, but I am not so sure.  

I was hurting as I lay in bed later that night, so I got up to move to the couch. It often helps when I can press my back against the back of the couch. Anyway, since I was up, I stepped outside to see if the dogs had come back. They had – and they smelled terrible. I opened the gate to get them into the yard and left them in the sunroom for the remainder of the night. The dogs were thrilled to be that close to their beds. Victoria was thrilled to have them home…stinky and all.

Me, not so much.