This year I did everything right. I made four different kinds of treats to pack in cute boxes for the neighbors; three different treats for the ladies I visit teach; I finished shopping by the end of Thanksgiving weekend; I thought of some somewhat engaging Family Night Lessons about the Christmas story; and I had everything wrapped 3 days before Christmas.
But this year, still felt decidedly un-Christmas-y. I mostly blamed the weather. It was 70 degrees and humid. Not at all Christmas-y. I also blame hormones. They are making me crazy. And lastly I blame my calling. What?!? You say, shouldn't serving in your calling make feel more Christ-like and closer to Christ and what is more CHRISTmas-y than feeling close to Christ? You could say that, but usually I spent the month of December reading the various accounts of Christ's birth and pondering on them, but this year I taught Young Women's all of December so spent my study time studying about Zion. Not the same as reading about Christmas.
Also I could blame the perfectness of everything else. I spent a lot of time making cookies, centerpieces and all that other nice but not important stuff when I could have been spending time with the kids. Maybe even should have been spending time with kids. I felt bad about it for a few days and decided that I wouldn't do that again next year. Next year, I'm going to keep it simple. One type of cookie for the neighbors. And then New Year's rolled around and I did the same thing and I changed my mind about not going all out for Christmas. Sure it's stressful and exhausting but 1. I really enjoy it. I like planning a nice meal and cooking good food from scratch and making cute centerpieces and getting out my China once a year. And 2. I think it's important. I obviously don't get my China out every day but every once in a while I think it's important to show people that you care about them enough to put the time into a fancy dinner. It's a way to show people that their company is important enough to you that you'll cook good food and set a nice table. I'll give you a non-example. Many of our ward parties consist of potlucks, which is fine, but the people in charge don't even bother to get out the white table clothes from the unlocked cabinet in the Relief Society room. When I show up and no one bothered to put a table cloth on the table, I feel like no body cares. They don't care enough about the ward, me, whoever to cover up the ugly tables. I'm not saying every day has to be super fancy, but yes, sometimes it's important to show people that their company is important enough to get the China out, or at least put a table cloth on the table. If I had an apostle visit, I'd show my gratitude and respect for his time by getting out the China and setting a nice table with good food. So yeah, I love my kids enough to get the China out. And if you didn't get your China out, then you obviously hate your children and might as well spit in their faces.
Having said that, this is how Christmas Eve and Christmas went down.
First Christmas Eve: Greg's parents and his sister and her family came over. We started with two pork roasts, one slightly over cooked because I had to borrow a second crock pot that I'd never used before, spinach salad, and rolls. My mother in law also brought a few sides--mac n cheese and creamed cabbage. The food was good. We ate.
And here are a bunch of pictures of the tables because this took a long time and a lot of planning (I'd been planning it since June) so I'm posting pictures as a way of congratulating myself.
Then we cleared the table for the traditional Robins Bingo, which apparently is a very weird game with completely made up rules because we had to explain how to play several times to the newbies. I grew up playing it the..well it's actually a Roberts thing, so I think it's completely normal. I keep discovering all my family's crazies. I did set the number one rule as no crying, which we succeed at so we'll call Bingo a slightly confusing success, though one of the prizes I bought nobody wanted. It was a Micky Mouse puzzle. Alice put it together a few days ago and had fun doing it, dangit.
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| Greg was the Bingo master. We decided rule #2 next year will be do whatever the Bingo master says. |
And then, the nativity of course. My sister know how I love a good nativity production so sent some legit costumes this year. Rex wants me to buy more for next year. I just might. Usually I have my kids practice for a few days before--we practice staging and they even say some of the lines but we skipped that this year since Greg's sister didn't want to make the 2-hour drive down for several days so we could practice. Lazy girl. Nevertheless the kids were pretty good. Henry was supposed to be a sheep but took his costume off. Three-year-old Wesley was Joseph but decided half-way through that Jesus's manger bed looked pretty comfortable. And I decided to add the part about Hannah at the temple since it probably came before the wise men showed up anyway. People were confused by this, but I think it's an interesting and important part of the story. Also that way Cora got to be a girl too.
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| Cora as the prophetess Hannah, Cash as the shepherd, Rex as the Angel, Bryant as the wise man, Wesley as Joseph, Alice as Mary, and Henry as a sheep on a donkey |
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| Henry the sheep decided to get in the manger |
Then we had dessert--Santa brownies and chocolate peppermint cheesecake. The kids ran around like crazy people, the cousins left, we put the kids to bed, and then the real fun began.
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| The cheesecake didn't turn out exactly how I wanted--I was going for a sprinkling of peppermint on top but it melted in the oven. It's also on a peppermint cake plater, which is hard to see in this picture, but believe me it's there. |
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