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WE. ARE. FAM-I-LY... 12 December 2005 ...I got all my cousins and me... You will be happy to hear that the dinner partyfinally happened; it's finally over. The house looked good. The dinner was fabulous, and a good time was had by all, especially me. What's more, this was the "big" Christmas dinner for me, so the pressure is off for the rest of the month. Every year I have my annual Christmas break-down when it's 2 days before Christmas, Walt's family is coming and I realize how much there is still to be done. But who will be here on Christmas this year? Jeri, Ned and Marta and my mother. It will be the smallest Christmas I can remember, perhaps since I started hosting Christmas dinners. (These are all the people who will be amazed if the house is clean, not appalled if it's not, so the pressure is off--and it's already clean anyway, assuming I can keep it that way for 2 weeks.) My mother arrived late in the morning to help me finish up. There was still a fair amount to do, of course, since I'd put everything off until the last possible second, but by 3 p.m. we were actually sitting down chatting and she was suggesting I take a nap. (I didn't; we watched The Daily Show instead.) But the living room was ready and the table looked, if I do say so myself, pretty damn good.
Unfortunately, my cousin who comes from Carson City (near Reno) was sick and unable to come, so there were only 7 of us, not the 9 I had planned for, but what a good time we had.
My dinner was, I modestly admit, delicious, thanks to The Food Network. I'm not a big ham person, but I decided to try Emeril Legasse's spiced baked ham with sweet potatoes and I have to say that even though it was more work than a regular ham, it was probably the best ham I've ever had. The trimmings were fine too, but Giada DiLaurentis' panettone trifle was fabulous. I'd never used mascarpone cheese (like Italian cream cheese) before, and when mixed with melted chocolate and espresso powder, it was like eating a spoonful of truffle. Really yummy. Christmas came early, as we all had gifts for each other, so there was a nice gift opening.
My cousins Peach and Kathy are so talented with handcrafts, something I am definitely not. Latte had gone off to Petco and then, spent the night at another foster home, so it was just Kimba and Sheila, and I was so proud of how well behaved Sheila was. She didn't touch the hors d'oeuvres on the coffee table and once her excitement about having new people arrive was over, she settled down nicely and just slept in the middle of all the confusion all evening. [Hurricane Latte returned this morning, bursting through the door full of energy and racing all over the house to see what had changed in her absence. She and Sheila greeted each other as if they hadn't seen each other in a year and were thrilled to be back together again.] I have a total of 32 cousins, many of whom I have only seen a handful of times in my life. But I am blessed that I have a good relationship with (some of) my cousins and that we have such a good time when we get together. It's fun to look back and laugh at all the funny things that have happened through out lives--and who remembers our entire history but us! It's also great that our spouses get along so well too. My cousin Peach gave me my own copy of the writings of our great grandfather and I was amused that the first thing I read this morning was...
Obviously Great Grandpa Josiah must have had a premonition!!! |
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Everyone needs a Christmas tie, right?
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10/25/05
