Friday, December 24, 2010

Last Minute

Matt said, "Do you think the mall is even open today? There's one more gift I want to get."

The assembled company made murmurs of amazement and foreboding, a general Oooooo, noooo.

I said, "Oh yeah, they're open.  If the gift is for me, you should go over there.  If it's not, you shouldn't bother, it will be too crazy."

Matt said, "Fair enough."

And off he went.

***

Are y'all ready?  We are at Christmas Defcon 1.  Welcome to my Christmas Attack Zone!  We have all the food we need, though one more trip to the liquor store would not go amiss.  Hank has had the traditional Christmas Eve haircut. All is merry and bright.

It dawned on me last week that I am hosting Christmas dinner.  We are having:

ham
cheese grits
green bean casserole
deviled eggs
ambrosia, a warm kind with curry and brown sugar

Also, mimosas.  Simple food, no big whoop.

People are always talking about how stressed they are around the holidays, or maybe it's the stress-relief industrial complex that is telling us that, but I realized that the whole difference is whether or not you're traveling away from home.  If you are trying to transport your family somewhere and bring all your Christmas presents with you, that is kind of stressful.  Staying home?  No school to get the kids to?  Sleeping eight hours a night?  Having your nine year-old wrap all the gifts?  These things are not stressful. Quite the opposite!

Merry Christmas you people! Those of you who are into Christmas! You make this blog a source of joy to me all year long.  Thank you.

Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum.

14 comments:

Maggie said...

Merry Christmas to yall. We are having a quiet one with just Gary and me but it will be fun. Here's hoping that 2011 is a wonderful year. Love yall

Michele said...

Merry Christmas Suburban family!

Allison said...

I love your menu. I miss eating Southern. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Megan said...

Merry Christmas, you Matronly type, you. Your dinner sounds fabulous, and I am eager as chipmunks to dive into our annual repeat of Thanksgiving dinner. Yay for turkey! Though we're supplementing pumpkin pie with a key lime one, too. Mmmmmm... Stay warm tomorrow!

Jenni said...

Merry Christmas, Sub Mat! xo!

delaine said...

That's one sweet-baboo of a husband you have there! And a delicious menu for dinner. I know it will be a lovely day at Woomer land. To paraphrase Tiny Tim " God bless you every one!"

Elizabeth said...

And Merry Christmas to you. I have so loved your blog this past few months -- am grateful to have "found" you.

Veronica said...

Merry Christmas, Dudes! Hope you have a lovely celebration. I made cheese grits as part of our Christmas Eve dinner, only we live on the west coast and so we call it "polenta."

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas!!

Carrie said...

I always get pretty stressed during the holidays. Every year I try to start a little earlier and pare back my to-do list in an attempt to have a stress-free Christmas, but so far no dice.

We travel 90 minutes on Xmas day, then another hour the next day, but nothing major. Still, I feel like getting through daily life with 3 kids, a part time job and a husband who works 50+ hours a week is hard enough. Then one day I'm designing Xmas cards online, trying to update my address database and get all those envelopes addressed, and shopping online which OK is fun but still takes many evenings, and finding a good deal on pretty wrapping paper, and wrapping and wrapping and wrapping, and then it's Christmas Eve and I realize I owe my employer 7 more hours of work this week and we don't have enough wrapping paper and the one big gift my oldest really wanted is out of stock, and before we know it it's 1 a.m.
But -- once again we pulled it all off. And the 6-year-old assured me it was the Best. Christmas. Ever. Once again.
Merry Christmas to you, Becky!

Kelly said...

Glad you went with the grits ;) Hope everything was delicious and Santa was good to you guys this year. Hope to see you again very soon! oxoxox

Leciawp said...

I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season, Becky. And I'm with you about the low stress thing..

Keely said...

yes, the travelling makes it stressful! I'm not normally stressed by Christmas and this year was kind of annoying. I didn't really feel like I was in the spirit.

Oh well. Next year will be lovely and relaxed AT HOME. Hope that last present was worth the trip to the mall!

Michele R said...

Hope you guys are staying warm! I'm thinking maybe the mall wasn't so bad? Hubs went the day after to return something with one of our sons and he said it was MORE PACKED than pre-Christmas. Everyone using their gift cards?
What movie did y'all see with the kids the other day? Let me know if are seeing any movies this week. We are off to see True Grit today (sans kids).
Did the big guys get their traditional haircut too?