Hello friends,
I have been anticipating this Christmas for a while. I didn't wait as long as Zechariah or anything... but suffice to say, I've been dreaming of a... Dudleys at home Christmas for a while. This is the year we go to grandparents for Thanksgiving and stay home at Christmas, it has become my favorite. This hasn't always been the case, but as my small family has grown, I have grown to appreciate the times we have together as very precious. I do love our extended families too and enjoy those years, but I do love my "off year/quieter year".
This year was a bit different in that I got lists from the kids early and did the bulk of my shopping online and was virtually done mid December. The baking was almost the same. I was a wonder woman... would come home each night and whip up a batch of confections... the freezer was filling, my closet was filling (that's where I stash the loot), I even got the annual Christmas letter/newsletter done at a decent timetable.
Fast forward to Christmas Eve... I'll start on the nitty gritty. We were lucky enough to have Bruce's folks join us, Gene and Rita. My in laws of almost 26 years. They're a hoot. They arrived on the 23rd. I guess we're backing it up a day... We all went out to Red Robin for dinner. Gene and Bruce play this game of "who will pay the bill?" It's super fun and all party goers should try it. This time Gene won, he told the waitress while he was ordering his beverage, HUGE rule breach. The funny "Dudley family folklore" was that he tried to pay with his driver's license. The waitress was really nice and he remedied his faux pax. In his defense, we had thrown our Red Robin Royalty card at him to get him a discount and that threw him, plus he volunteers at the jail every week and they make him provide his DL there. We didn't rule out a mini stroke though... I had my eye on him the rest of the night.
Ok, now we're at Christmas Eve. We spent the bulk of the day at home. Dinging around, visiting, I was preparing for our meal(s). Just a good day, my favorite kind, all my kids home, me cooking, my boys having a run. We all went to church at 5:00. All but Grandpa who had caught a bug, an immediate and really awful little cold like bug and coupled with some muscular chest issues he's dealing with was making him fairly miserable. Poor Gene-O, I felt awful for him. The rest of us enjoyed an amazing service at Salem Alliance Church. Complete with a rendition of "Oh Holy Night" that left us all dumbfounded by my buddy Logan.
We came home from service and had an awesome lasagna meal (if I do say so myself), we each opened one present, we began the annual "A Christmas Story" marathon that has graced our world for a few years now, thank you TBS.
Christmas Eve ended with most of the Dudleys going to bed and the "Lead Elf" aka "Mom" stuffing the stockings, eating the cookies that were left for Mr. Clause... actually, I put them into the tupperware with the others, I mean, I aint running these days, I can't afford cookie calories. Anyway, merriment was readied... I went to bed and woke up at 8:00 to put the giant bird in.
We had told Grandma and Grandpa to come at 10:00 f0r the presents. (they stay in a hotel, no room in the inn) I got up, wrangled the turkey, drank some coffee, watched the straggling family members stroll down. It's nice to have larger children (notice I didn't say 'more mature' children) who don't get up at 5:00 am to see what Santa brought. My larger and way NOT mature children all managed to get up and then Grandma and Grandpa came. We opened up the loot! It was amazing. Yay God!
You sent us Your Son on this blessed morning, thank You so much, we are all so not worthy. I felt compelled to add this, I make jokes and kid around, but Jesus, You really are the reason for the season... regardless of whether that rhymes. You rule my life. I love You, I worship You and You are the only reason that all of this Christmas craziness happens. I'm sorry it can seem like craziness to You. I hope You can see the sincerity that is in there too.
The present frenzy ended... it was great, we all LOVED everything! My favorite thing was that I decided to give each person in our house a letter of "Words of Affirmation" I spent weeks on this task, I loved it. I wrote a single page letter to each of my family telling them what they mean to me. From the heart, things I don't tend to say.. I highly recommend it to you all. I didn't anticipate the silence of the stocking opening when they each read theirs... it was a bit awkward, but also fun to watch their reactions. I had assumed they'd each read them later, but they each read them before they tore into their stockings. That ended the present portion of our celebration.
We gently moved into the "Dudleys shall hog out" portion of our program. I made my way to the kitchen and laid out the appetizers. Let the feeding frenzy begin. I then ensued onto the rest of the Christmas feast. When I post this blog on my FB page, cuz that's how cool I am yo! I shall tag all the people who had a part in our feast. To quote Bob Cratchit in ANY of the Scrooge knock offs... "To Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast"
We had a turkey dinner. I prepared a 24lb. bird. I also did homemade stuffing with sausage from my brother Marty. Awesome. I made a green bean casserole. Mashed potatoes, which my mommy taught me how to make before I could drive. I had home made yeast rolls from my Nana, who taught me everything about baking and also Bruce's Grandma McQuary who gave me her recipe. We had jam from my mom, the butter was put in a dish that Randy Portolese, my bro in law gave me, a really cool antique one. The dinner was complemented by a nice Syrah from our friends' winery, Elemental Cellars. It was dee.. lish!
All in all, our Christmas was awesome, we capped it by watching "It's a Wonderful Life" like we always do, complete with all the commentary. We all cry or tear up. It's wonderful. I love my family. We rock. Oh yeah, this year was also capped by Tyler doing the "Dougie" in the Ralphie bunny suit from "A Christmas Story". It's on YouTube. under... who knows what.
