Post-dejeuner

[kerravonsen]

Well, the family have left now, some to their repose, some on to other events. Mum, Dad, the Aunts, and my brother's family were all over here for "dinner", which was our planned afternoon-tea transposed an hour and a half earlier, because bro's family were all going off to in-laws for tea, which changed all the plans. We still over-catered, and the food was divvied up between three households at the end. There were three tables covered with snack-type food: corn chips, chips, dips, popcorn, a vegetable platter, cheese, crackers, a seafood platter, pretzels, dried apricots, cherries, strawberries and some shortbread. The only traditional thing was the Christmas pudding, which we had about 1:30.

I had woken up at about 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I had been expecting Mum and the Aunts to come at about 10am to set things up (I'd said I would provide the venue, but not organize the food, just the pudding). Dad and I went to church at 9:30, and when we got back, there was nobody there. So Dad went back home, and I started doing things, mending the picnic table, started putting stuff out, and getting more and more stressed as nobody came. They finally arrived at 12:10 -- and the others were supposed to come at 12:30! So when Dad asked some question or other, I completely lost it, couldn't stop crying. They had apparently been flat out themselves, doing something, I dunno what. Chopping up the cheese, maybe. Anyway, bro's family arrived while we were still doing stuff, so some stuff didn't get done, like the strawberries weren't hulled. I just put them out in their plastic container, tough.

But one of my Aunts said that she liked it better than the traditional Christmas dinner, it was more relaxed, you didn't have to wait for the food, it was just there on all the tables. Also much praise given for my ham+mustard dip that I'd made yesterday. Very simple, it was just cream cheese, sour cream, ham, and wholegrain mustard. Mind you, it was most excellent ham and mustard. 8-)

After we'd made initial forays into the food, and had the pudding, Dad handed out the presents, with assistance from neiflings. I got a lovely Paua-shell necklace from bro's family (well, they had just come back from New Zealand!), and a blue towel from my Aunts, and lots of nice things from my parents, including a nice black shawl with flowers embroidered on the edges. I am glad to say that the sword+gauntlet set I got for Nephew #2 was a hit -- though he did start hitting too many things with it...

Fortunately, folks rallied round to clean things up before they left, and didn't leave me holding the bag with piles of dishes and trash. Well, there's probably crumbs and bits of popcorn and the odd ribbon on the floor, but it's basically all okay. Which is just as well, because I am exhausted. Even though S-I-L was doing the dishes, and neiflings were drying up, there was a lot of "where does this go?" and "what do I do with this?" and of course we had to figure out who got what leftovers, and find missing lids and all that. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Though I have to. I'll have to think of something mindless to do.

Added: Oh, and my-brother-who-is-overseas rang and the cordless phone was passed around and people had a few words. Is good.

Comments

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

You can't nap? I suppose because you'd throw your sleep schedule off, and you probably have to work tomorrow. Sad. I've got five more ribbons to put on, and then I'm off to bed. I may get a whole six hours' sleep tonight; that's a Christmas Eve record!

::hugs:: Glad you had a nice Christmas. Your mustard dip sounds excellent; it reminds me of a ham spread a co-worker made once: cream cheese, wholegrain mustard, and a touch of horseradish. She spread it on thin-sliced boiled ham, rolled up the slices, and cut them into little pinwheels. Yum.

[kerravonsen]

I suppose because you'd throw your sleep schedule off

Ever since my visit to the UK this year, where I had a combination of a cold and the horriblest horriblest jetlag that there has ever been in the entire universe, I have been terrified of throwing my sleep schedule off. I even considered going to bed at 8:30 too early last night, and then I got caught up with doing something, so I didn't actually get to bed until about 11:30! Fortunately, with my bedroom move, the very dark curtains in that room allow me to sleep later than I would in the other rooms because the summer-morning light doesn't wake me up, so I managed to sleep until 7:30 or so, and doze until 8am. So it wasn't that bad. I am intentionally having a quiet day today, though. Just going to make pea-and-ham soup with my hambone.

Brother-who-is-overseas

[(Anonymous)]

I was glad to join the party. We also had a non-traditional Christmas dinner here in Indonesia, and also wondered when people would turn up. Because here you ask lots of people to come, and you're never sure if they'll turn up until they do. But we had about 20 on Christmas day and about a dozen on boxing day, so the cocktail sandwiches and orange cake and ginger bikkies Lalita made were well consumed.

Re: Brother-who-is-overseas

[kerravonsen]

Was that the second or the third time you rang? Because while we were running around doing stuff in the kitchen, someone rang, and I raced to the phone, and there was nobody there. So then the second time someone rang, I said, let the answering machine get it (I think we were dishing up the pudding or something like that). And when I heard your voices I dashed to the phone in a big panic and didn't get there before you'd hung up. So when you called the (2nd or 3rd) time, I pounced on the phone and yelled at everybody that it was you.