Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve

Last year I had to do both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and it was a lot of work.  I didn't really want to do it again so I asked Doug and Jenn if they would like to host Christmas Eve and they said they would.  I told them they could have it at whatever time they wanted and make whatever food they wanted.  They would just have to let us know what time and if we needed to bring anything.  Jenn said she would keep us in the loop.  

As it got closer, they got their tree, this time from a lot in town since Gerrit's Greens was closed this year, and got it decorated.  Jenn told me she was going to make prime rib, veggies, rolls, potatoes, salad etc.  I told her all of that was fine and if she needed help with anything.  She asked if I had a rack she could use and some more chairs and I told her I would bring those by.  So on Wednesday after work, I drove to their house with the chairs, presents and the rack to put the meat on.

On Christmas Eve, work was light so I logged off at 1, got my stuff together and drove out to Rainier to help Mom frost cookies because I told her I would.  She made a bunch of different types of cookies this time but only needed help frosting her sugar cookies and the gingerbread cookies.  She had a bunch of mugs with her powdered sugar and milk mixture with random food colors inside each one so we started with the sugar cookies first then moved onto the gingerbread cookies next.  Those were more challenging because Mom wanted me to put faces and buttons on them with icing squirted from a piping bag.  

We put a few of each into a tin and told me to take it to my co-worker Debbie, since Mom saw on one of my posts that she wanted some cookies.  I helped Mom clean up and then told her I had a bunch of stuff to take care of before going over to Doug and Jenn's for dinner and presents tonight.  She said she would see me there.  I left and headed to Tumwater.

I've taken Debbie home a few times over the past two years so I knew where she lived.  She decided to work the full day so I knew this visit would be short.  I parked near the duplex and knocked on her door.  She answered it and was very excited to see me and the cookies.  I literally haven't seen her in person since March 25th.  We chatted for about ten minutes or so and then she had to get back to work.  I told her happy holidays and got back in the Escape and headed to the cemetery, since the weather was decent and it wasn't getting dark yet.

I stopped by to chat with Grammie about the stuff that has been happening and I wanted to come either on Christmas Eve or Christmas because I miss her so much during the holidays.  They have been just not the same without her and with Covid the holidays have been even worse.  I missed her so much and these years without her have been emotionally hard.  I thanked her for watching over us and told her about some of the plans we had for Christmas this year.  I brought her a full sized Christmas wreath this year.  

I went home to finish cleaning up the house and had Ben help me.

As it approached 6, Ben and I got ready, grabbed the salad dressings we were suppose to bring and headed over to Doug and Jenn's house for dinner and presents.  I was so glad I brought the tables, chairs and presents over the day before.  We arrived and got comfy while Doug and Jenn put the final touches on the dinner spread.  Some of us hung out on the couch with Charlie while a few of us helped get stuff on the table.  I got the salad ready and got the dressings out.  We put everything on the table in the kitchen and told everyone is was time to eat.  Everyone sat at the dining room table in the extra room while Jenn and I ate at the table with all of the food on it.  If they are going to host stuff in the future, they seriously need to get another table and some chairs.  The food hit the spot and we all probably ate more than we should have but isn't that what you're suppose to do during the holidays?

We all went into the living room shortly after cleaning up a bit, found some good spots on the couch and chairs and started handing out gifts to each other.  I was super excited about my Santa shark wrapping paper.  I saw Erika found some really cool wrapping paper as well.  It was Christmas unicorn themed.  Yes, there were balled up pieces of wrapping paper being thrown at everyone.  Once everyone was done opening their presents, it was fun to see what everyone got.  I thought I did a good job getting at least one or two things for everyone to open.  Some people are harder than others.  

We took a family picture next to the tree.  We then helped Doug and Jenn clean up the paper all over the house before loading up our stuff in our own vehicles and heading home.  We were probably over there for a few hours.  We thanked them for hosting and I told everyone we would see them tomorrow morning around 9 a.m.

Ben and I got home, finished cleaning up, set up the tables, chairs, put the table cloths on, the plates, napkins and silverware.  We were up until at least 2 a.m. making sure the morning would go as smoothly as possible. 

Ben and I wore our jingle jammies to bed.  We decided this year to get matching pajamas for Christmas since this year was super disappointing.  We got our bottoms from Old Navy and our shirts from Turtle Tee's, an online shirt place I saw on Instagram.

We set our alarms for 8 a.m. and went to bed.

Christmas

Ben and I got up around 8, when our annoying phone alarms went off.  I immediately went into the kitchen and started the breakfast casserole's because they needed to cook for about 45 minutes.  I cut up the fruit and the blueberry muffins.  Meanwhile, Ben was in the bathroom shaving and watching his weird anime shows while he did it.  This is why it takes him like 10 times longer to shave than it normally does.  

Kevin and Karla decided not to partake this year because of Covid, Tracy was going to be late and Grandpa physically couldn't come because he was confined to the care facility after his surgery.  I knew once Grammie wasn't here things were going to fall apart.  It was almost like there wasn't any joy anymore for the holidays and we were just going through the motions almost routine-like.  Holidays in general to me seemed more like a chore than a happy time.

Anyway, as the food was getting close to being done, everyone started to arrive around 8:45.  I had Ben help everyone bring in their gifts and whatnot.  Breakfast officially got done a little bit after 9.  I had the food set on the dining room table so people could grab their plates, dish up and come sit at the table in the living room.  We ate food and chatted about stuff.  Once we were done, I had help cleaning up, shoved most of the stuff into the dishwasher and got it started, the cloth napkins I threw into the washing machine, we wiped up the counters and got ready to do presents in the living room.

We all sat near the couch and a few of us handed out gifts.  We still chose names just because it would cost money for everyone to buy everyone gifts.  This year I had Amy and Doug had me.  Amy was very hard to get stuff for.  I ended up getting her some stuff for her truck and some other random things when I came across them.  I made it work.  Doug did a pretty good job except now I have two Wazzuopoly board games.  My favorite gift was the canvas I had Ben make for me of College Gameday back in October 2018 when the Cougs hosted the Ducks and we won.  An alumni who did go, took a picture of that day and posted it to the Die Hard Coug Fans Facebook page and made it shareable.  I wished I could have been able to go but it wasn't in the cards unfortunately.  

Of course balled up wrapping paper was being thrown at everyone, I picked it up as I came across them and tossed them into a garbage bag.  Our kittens, Wade and Oliver were loving all the torn up wrapping paper.  They played in it as hard as they could.  Erika had gotten Ben, Doug and Dad remote controlled dinosaur cars and we wanted to race them in the cul-de-sac but sadly, it was raining and we couldn't go out and play with them.  Maybe another day.  Dad called Grandpa so we could each talk to him and wish him a Merry Christmas.  I knew he would rather be hanging out with his family than stuck at a rehab facility.  I quickly told him how the day was going and what we had for breakfast.  I asked him how he was, he answered, I told him we missed him and then I had to pass the phone to the next person.

Around noon, I got the ham and the cooker out, made my brown sugar glaze, stabbed it with pineapples on toothpicks and turned the dial to the appropriate temperature.  Trish helped me get it ready.  We finished cleaning up the living room, everyone gathered up their stuff and headed home for a while.  Trish, Amy and Ed stayed with Ben and I throughout the afternoon.  

Tracy showed up around 12:15 and ate her breakfast.  She told some stories, played a few board games for a few hours and then left around 3:30 to head back to Battleground.  I left right after I served her breakfast because I had promised my friend Alicia that I would go check and feed her dogs while she was visiting family in Eastern Washington for the holiday weekend.  I took about 40-45 minutes to go take care of that.  I got home around 1:30ish, relaxed for a bit and then played Jenga with Trish, Ed, Ben and Tracy for a while.  

As it approached 3:45-4, Trish and I went into the kitchen to get the rest of the stuff ready for dinner.  She helped me peel potatoes, we made gravy and stuffing (I called her stuffing "sweaty stuffing" because it was) we got the dining room table set up with the food and tried doing the dishes as we went so it wasn't overwhelming later on.

I had Ben clean off the two tables we were going to eat on, put the new table cloths on, got the plates, silverware and napkins all ready for dinner.   Everyone showed up around 5 which was perfect timing because the food was done somewhat on time.  Ben cut up the ham with the carver Grandma let us borrow that she found in her house just recently so that made it easy this time around.

There was a lot of food for dinner so I was hoping everyone was hungry.  The food was delicious and I ended up eating way more than I should have.  Ham is addicting and so was the stuffing.

We cleaned up, Mom and Trish helped me with the dishes, we cleared off the table and got it ready for bingo.  I had bought a bunch of bingo prizes from the Dollar Tree a few weeks ago.  We all sat at the table and we handed out bingo cards, daubers and markers to everyone and played some very competitive series of bingo games.  I was the caller.  We ended up playing five different games and had several winners for those games.  Just about everyone won a prize or two.

We took some family pictures in front of the tree, everyone gathered their stuff, dished up some leftovers and they headed home for the night.

I was so Christmas'ed out.  I wanted to get everything done and put away after everyone left so Ben and I took a couple hours and completed everything.  When we were done, we hung out the rest of the night relaxing.  We stayed up until about 2.  I watched TV and worked on my blog and he spent time playing his video games with his friends.  

This was the first time in my life both Grammie and Grandpa weren't at Christmas with us celebrating.  It definitely felt different.  Hopefully, this next year will be better for all of us and this ridiculous virus will go away.

Next Adventure:  A Covid New Year's Eve