There’s No Place Like Home After The Holidays
We are just back from Texas and our Annual Christmas Extravaganza and Food Riot. Everything went well. There were about 28 people around that tree – just like last year. Next year we anticipate the number to be at least one baby higher. The little ones from last year are a year older, bigger, and more frantically active. Two Twin Two-Year Olds in Non-Stop Motion. Picture a crowded room and in the middle of it is a Perpetual Motion Machine on Overdrive.
Katie, bar the door!
As a part of any trip to Texas, I got sick. I don’t know if it is allergies Plague, or what, but every time we head to Texas I come down with heavy-duty congestion and sinus headaches. It has almost become part of the Holiday Tradition.
We took two weeks for this year’s holiday sojourn. That way the marathon “visiting and socializing” can be spread out and around meals and not wedged into just a two or three day period.
With Family members coming in from all over the map I am forced to ration out my Social Skills. I have a limited amount of Sociability in me and once it goes – I turn into that Grumpy Cat we see everywhere scowling out at the world.
On Christmas Eve the whole crew gathered around the tree to watch the youngsters open gifts and to watch the oldster struggle getting up off of the sofa. Just watching us Geezers get to our feet is as much a part of Christmas as the Three Wise Men.
As one batch of Great-Grandchildren matures there is another batch just rising into awareness of the world around them. “The Greats” range in age from 16 years down to 2, with another one scheduled for arrival at about Easter. At this rate next Christmas might have to be held at the Baseball Stadium in Corpus Christi – “Whataburger Field.”
“And here comes Krafty sliding into third! Will somebody pick him up?”
When you have that many people showing up at one time the biggest logistical problem is – How to feed them all. Trying to do it at the house is impossible. The Solution? “Dinner will be at the Church Hall at 7 PM.” It is just a few blocks away and can handle the invasion of that many hungry mouths. Hot foods are carried in or assembled there. Thank God, for them there Baptists. Everybody gets fed and there is enough room for the little ones to run around and burn off some of that energy that I wish I had.
Our Christmas in Texas is over for this year. Everyone from out of town has gone home, back to work or school. They’ve also started dieting to lose some of that Holiday Excess.
We are back in Terre Haute (That’s French for, “Is there any cheesecake left?”) We have arrived just in time for me to Moon the World as part of my Colonoscopy. So much for Holiday Cheer and Visions of Sugar Plum Faeries.
I just took care of that, didn’t I? Well, better luck next year.
Down the Hall on Your Left 