Christmas this year was a little understated, but we still managed to go big with the candy! The kids had a great time mixing up all the different kinds together and filling bags to give to everyone we planned to see.
On Christmas Eve, we had our family time as usual here at home. Reading the Christmas story is always central, followed by gifts. I once again received far more from my dear husband than I deserved – a beautiful new Macro 100mm lens to play with, which I did the very next day when we went to Grandma’s house for her Christmas celebration.
I have to comment briefly on the dinner I planned and then barely executed on Christmas Eve. My grand plan was to honor my Norse heritage with the traditional Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. I had Geneva bring a mouth-watering Caesar salad, and Laurent made a fabulous cranberry sauce to replace the traditional lingonberry. Well, for a group the size of ours, I knew it was going to require a lot of meatballs. Little did I know how long those meatballs would take to make – it really was an all day process on the 23rd, and I needed all kinds of help to get it done. I bit off more than I could chew. At the end of the day, I peeled and boiled the potatoes to have them ready for the morning. Only when I awoke did I remember that I didn’t turn off the burner, but had left it on low the whole night and the potatoes were dried, reduced to half the size, with a good inch or more of charred burned potatoes stuck to the bottom of the pan. So, first thing in the morning, while my dear husband had to fight with cleaning that pot, I had to peel another bag of potatoes and put them on to boil. The upside was of course that they were totally fresh when served, and very delicious. But it was still the meatballs that slayed me. If I ever make do this again, I am not making them by hand. That’s just ridiculous. I’ll buy them at IKEA before I do that!
We were all sorry to miss out on seeing Megan and Patrick on Christmas Eve or Day, as she was just recovering from Covid, but everyone else was at Grandma’s and it was a very blessed time, with all the cousins enjoying each other’s company and humor. Blessed, and incredibly loud, as you can imagine with my crew there. Sometimes things are so crazy I just kind of block out the memory of it, and only later did I remember that my kids managed to knock Grandma’s little Christmas tree over 3 times. They are worse than cats, I tell you. But it was all good, nobody got hurt, and none of her ornaments were breakable (smart Grandma). She has the best attitude ever and I love that woman! There’s never been a better mother-in-law.
Boxing day brought another trip to a park, and while I was still recovering from Christmas day and stayed home, Paul took both all the kids, and my camera, and got some pics of the fun.
