Christmas 2018

It's just after 10:00am on Christmas morning.  Jimmy and I are sitting in the living room watching the Today show relaxing after a long day yesterday, Christmas Eve. We hosted the family Christmas party this year.  Jimmy's brothers and sisters (and their families) gather together on Christmas Eve every year.  Every year, as people get married, have babies, the crowd gets bigger.   We take turns hosting.  We haven't hosted in a few years; other siblings were taking our turn because they didn't feel we were up to it.  They were right, we weren't.  We weren't really up to it this year, either, but I felt compelled anyway.  I don't know, I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder if this will be my last Christmas.  My doctors tell me that I have years left yet, but with a terminal illness, you can't help but wonder.  Anyway, I felt that I needed to host this year.

We started preparing a few weeks ago.  I'm not gonna lie -- my house is never immaculate.  With as slow as Jimmy and I move these days, we needed to get started early.  I found a few recipes online that I tried out -- a bacon ranch cheeseball that was a hit, spinach balls that were not.  I made chicken salad and macaroni tuna salad.  Everybody brought a dish or two to share.  There was tons of food.  Today the refrigerator is full with leftovers.  We have lunch and dinner for the next few days, at least.

We had everything ready to go by 4pm, with about an hour to rest before family started arriving.   The house ended up being so full, we could hardly walk around.   We had our white elephant gift exchange, the children were given their gifts, and everyone ate.  Sounds of laughter filled the house.  At one point, I just sat back in my blue recliner and looked around.  The small groups sitting around, conversations, laughter.  It made my heart so full and happy to see.  At this point I had crossed the over-exhaustion line, but I wasn't ready to go to bed just yet.  Somewhere around 9pm, I think, it was time to get the kiddos home to bed so that Santa could come.  Leftovers were put away, and suddenly the house was quite.  But we weren't done just yet.

Jimmy, Jimmy, David, and I decided to open our gifts to each other before going to bed, instead of waiting for Christmas morning.  The boys don't wake up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning anymore.  So, I climbed into bed and they gathered 'round.  I think everyone was happy with their gifts.  I don't think any of us had trouble falling asleep last night.

This morning, Jimmy and I woke before the boys.  We sat at the table with our bowls of Cap'n Crunch, reminiscing about the party.  We both were happy with how it turned out.  We forgot to turn on the Christmas tree lights, we forgot to turn on Christmas music.  Other than that, we think everyone had a good time.  We sure hope they did, anyway.  We made some good memories last night.  Thank you to the Payne family for that.

Bacon Ranch Cheeseball recipe
Note -- I did not use pepper jack cheese; I substituted cheddar for it.  Also, I did not use pecans.