Here's my crew at Mom and Dad's house yesterday afternoon. Although it's a long-standing tradition to spend Christmas Eve there, last year we decided to change things up just a little bit. Instead of waiting until dinner to begin the festivities, we now meet for lunch. As a result, no one seems to be hurried, having to scurry along to other households after just an hour or so. We were able to "get the full value of joy" by dividing it with about 30 family members, spanning four generations. It is a complete zoo. I can't imagine spending Christmas any other way!
Of course, there's food . . . and plenty of it. Meatballs, guacamole and chips, shrimp cocktail, relish tray, bean salad, ham, turkey, spinach maria, sausage balls, layered salad, cucumber salad, apple and cranberry crumble, grape salad, cranberry jello salad, chicken salad, and homemade sourdough bread.
There was no shortage of sweets either: brownies, oatmeal cookies, crescent cookies, cookie dough fudge, Christmas Crunch (fun-fetti popcorn), banoffee pie, and pecan pie. I plan to share some of these recipes in future posts.
Then we opened gifts when the kids could no longer stand it. Mom and Dad got the Harry & David fruit-of-the-month club. We also gave Mom a small extra gift that I couldn't pass up: EARTH without ART is just 'EH' :)
We gave silly straws with Rudolph-inspired Cokes to the little ones. (Yes, I love Pinterest!) All of the nieces got OPI's Top Ten nail polishes along with a "Happy Christmas to All" emery board, and the adults got UT puzzles. (Oh, how I wish for a comeback season next fall!)
Of course, the best present was simply the presence of family and friends. May all of you have the most joy full Christmas ever!
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