Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!  Tonight we go to the Christmas Eve potluck/open house at my youngest sister's,  joined by her husband's parents and siblings and their families, as well as my parents and other sister, her husband and their grown daughter who lives in London.  My 18 year old will be going to a party with her boyfriend, who is here on Christmas break from attending college in Pennsylvania.  Then tomorrow night we have the big Christmas Day dinner here at our house, with my parents along with the visiting sister, her husband and daughter, our 14 and 18 year olds, and the boyfriend.  Monday, our oldest daughter will make it out here with the two grandchildren (4 and 2), and we will have a mid-day festive meal of some sort and the little people will see what Santa left for them here.

The 18 year old has already departed with the boyfriend and his family.  The 14 year old is with my visiting sister, her husband and their daughter, along with my youngest sister's 8 year old daughter (yes, it's true -- my mother had only sisters, 2, I had only sisters, 3, I have only girls, 4, and both of my sisters with children only have girls -- our 4 yr old grandson is the only boy in the family aside from spouses!) riding the trolleys downtown, checking out the ducks in the fountain at the Peabody along with the decorations, and seeing Sun Studio if it's open.  I guess since niece Katie took up residence in London, she's decided she needs to see Sun Studio.

This will be the first year our #2 daughter has not been here for Christmas, since she moved to Austin last summer and came here at Thanksgiving to move the rest of her stuff.  I'm sure there will be many changes to our Christmas routine in the coming years as the girls get older and even move away and as we juggle multiple holiday events with other families and schedules.  With the aging of my parents, the venue of the main holiday dinner and present opening has shifted from their house to ours.

In the meantime, the roast is (hopefully) thawed, the stockings are ready to be stuffed, the presents are wrapped, the significant portions of the house are reasonably cleaned, and following my KISS program of holiday coping I have a box of crackers, a sliced brie log, and a jar of spicy tomato jam from my pantry for the potluck tonight, so I am relaxing with a cup of chai (maybe I'll have two!), and reading some mags the rest of the afternoon.  Merry Christmas to all.

1 comment:

Ann said...

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. This is the first year in three that our daughter, 29, has been able to join us. It's wonderful to have her here at this special time. When they grow up and go out on their own, we have to be happy with the time we get with them, no matter how scarce. Merry Christmas.