Ben got up shortly, put some clothes on and helped me get the silverware, plates and cups out. We cut up the fruit and put it on serving trays. We had bananas, grapes, apples and oranges and when Grammie and Grandpa got there they brought the cinnamon rolls to go with it.
We definitely had plenty of food to go around and no one is going to starve.
I got into my Christmas spandex, I bought some for me, mom and Erika to wear on Christmas and didn't realize everyone wanted a pair, and braced myself for the morning chaos. Just before 9 a.m. everyone started to arrive. We all helped bring in presents and put them under the tree.
The breakfast casserole had just gotten done just after 9 a.m. I got out the pizza pan and put some of the cinnamon rolls on it so we could heat them up a bit. I had all the plates, silverware and cups on the table so Ben helped me put all the food on the table. Everyone sat down and we passed the food around.
We talked about an array of things while we ate. There is always a lot of laughing and our conversations always lead to someone talking about poop or pooping. We talked about the Seahawks and usually the latest things going on in our lives. In my and Ben's case we talked about roommate troubles and the next steps which was summoning her to small claims court because she was being unresponsive and unreasonable. Doug and Jen were dealing with their itchy cat. Erika had just moved in with Red at his house in Littlerock. Mom and dad were finishing up the floor in the living room and thinking about cutting down some scary trees in their yard. Everyone else was just trying to enjoy life as best as they could.
I was really hoping 2018 would be much better than 2017. This year was pretty rough! Builds character right?
After breakfast I gathered some of the dishes and put them in the dish washer, grandma, mom and Ben helped. We needed to get them going so they would be done in time for dinner. We went into the living room and everyone sat either on the giant couch or in some chairs and Karla passed out the presents to everyone.
Grammie had me this year and I had Jenn. I tried to stick with the NY Giants and Ol' Miss stuff, she also wanted one of those Google Mini's. I made sure I stuck to the $50 limit. All of it I bought online because I was sorta lazy this year. I got a Seahawk sweatshirt and a few little things from Grammie. We threw wadded up Christmas wrapping paper at each other for the next half hour while everyone admired their new goodies. Erika had Grammie and bought her the 23 and Me DNA testing to find out where you are from and what you are made of. Erika did it while working in the clinic in Germany and thought it would be fun to have Grammie do it. Grammie spent the next half hour spitting into a vile so we could package it up and send it.
Just before noon, everyone packed up their stuff and headed home to chill out for a while and prepare their item for dinner. I got the ham in as quickly as we could because it needed to cook for at least 4 hours. Jenn went back to the house with mom and dad to check on her cat, Doug stayed with Ben, grandma and I and the rest left for a while. Kevin and Karla would not be joining us for dinner. I heard grandpa slipped and fell in my driveway. He carried Grammie's purse and it had made him unbalanced and fell on the way to the truck. We found out he was okay but he was going to be sore.
I sat on the couch for about 2 hours watching whatever was on the TV. I was so relaxed I could have fallen asleep, which is what I wanted to do but I had to entertain guests and make sure the food wasn't burning. Ben's mom, sister and the two little girls were coming over for dinner and we had to hid all of our valuables and breakables because I knew as soon as they came through the door, they would be touching EVERYTHING!
Around 3:00 is when they came through the door and just as I thought, they touched everything. While I was making sure the ham was still doing well, it still had an hour-ish, I had to have Ben come in and make sure they weren't taking the magnets and pictures off the fridge. They touched my NFL helmets, they fell to the floor and Ben had to take them down and put them away. They ran around, got bored of everything, touched more stuff and finally we sat them down and gave them their Christmas presents. They got Barbie dolls, accessories and clothes to put on them and a couple of other little fun kid gifts. They were elated! Ben and I opened the gifts Trish and Amy brought for us. Then they continued touching more things. Erika came back and got some of her drawing pads and markers out. Then we turned on a cartoon and they immediately stopped and stared for a good while.
Everyone else arrived just before 4 and I was finishing up the gravy, the rolls and making sure the potatoes, ham and other hot foods were staying hot. I let everyone know the food was done and everyone piled their food onto their plates and sat down at the super table. Again, we talked about different things, people asked Trish and Amy questions since they weren't here this morning for breakfast. We spend a lot of time visiting and the reason we can tell is we all beat Grammie eating our food. She still has a bunch of food left on her plate because she is visiting so much. We always give her a bad time for it.
Trish, Amy and the girls left around 7ish so they could be home at a decent time. We were glad they came over. Everyone else were in a food coma and wanted to leave because they were getting tired. They thanked me for all the work I did and that it looked nice and turned out well. Christmas sure goes by really fast even though we all spend a lot of time preparing for it.
After everyone left Ben and I started cleaning up. I just couldn't go relax without knowing all the messes were cleaned up. I started with the dining room and Ben spent some time cutting up the rest of the ham. I got all the tables cleared off and cleaned along with putting the chairs away. Then I heard him yelp from the kitchen. He had just cut himself with the knife and we had bloody ham. I helped him get rid of the bloody parts, got him cleaned up and sanitized and then I sanitized everything that he touched. I swept the floor and vacuumed. We started the dishwasher, got showers and went to bed. We were so tired. Until next Christmas!
Next Adventure: Grays Harbor Cache Machine II
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