It's Finally Over

This has been a Christmas like no other I can remember in recent history.  We got started on Christmas Eve and didn’t stop until last night.  Gene and I are two tired puppies.  Although she won’t admit it, I bet my mother is, too.

For several years we have been gathering at my parents’ home on Christmas Eve.  This event started out as a neighborhood party.  Everybody dressed up in their festive attire and finger foods were served on Christmas china and silver.  Over the years, that huge party has been downsized several times until now it is just my folks, Gene and I, my uncle and aunt, and, if he’s in town, my brother.   We wear jeans and eat soup.  This year Nancy made taco soup, I made potato soup, and mother made chicken mushroom soup.  All were delicious.

My nephews and their families arrived on Monday and Tuesday.  That surely made a house full.  There were kids on the floor and my brother on the sofa.  That also made a whole lot of mouths to feed so there was a whole lot of cooking going on.  My brother and nephews are all good cooks and aren’t afraid to roll up those sleeves and get it done.  That was a good thing, especially Tuesday, when we had a total of 19 for dinner.  Twenty-three were invited, but not all could come.

One nephew and his family left early Wednesday morning to return home to middle Georgia.  My brother left in the afternoon heading back to Macon.  That only left my oldest nephew and his family for our meal last night.  He decided he was going to do the cooking.  If you’ve followed this blog for very long, you have heard me praise his cooking skills.  We were not disappointed last night with veal scallopini, linguini with a olive oil, garlic and tomato sauce, and a Caesar salad.  Thank you, Ben!

We were so busy visiting, cooking, cleaning, opening gifts and everything else that I never even picked up my camera.  There were a few moments that I wish I had captured, but mostly it was nice just to enjoy rather than try to catch every “Kodak moment”.

As you can imagine, we’re all pretty tired.  Gene and I didn’t plan anything for today.  We enjoyed sipping our coffee this morning without a deadline to meet.  Mid-morning we went out to spend some of the Christmas money we had gotten, but mostly we just relaxed and enjoyed the day.  He took a nap and then went for a short walk this afternoon.  Hopefully, in the next couple of days we’ll be back to our hiking.  Gotta work off these extra calories we’ve consumed this week.

We’ve had a very busy week, but also a very rewarding week spending time with family.

That’s it for today.  I think I can safely say I’m back to my regular nightly posting of the blog.  So, until tomorrow----thanks for tagging along.