Christmas… that dear holiday season… so festive, so beautiful, and so warm… but so hard to plan. Here, planning Christmas is a nightmare… it’s horrible… I swear, even if we start a year, six months, or two months in advance, it just doesn’t work!!! With so many families, we can’t seem to find THE perfect time for EVERY party!
In my mom’s family, there are six sisters… and almost all of them have kids, which adds up to a total of 12 grandchildren… When we were little and had to go along with our parents’ plans, it wasn’t a problem… but THE day each of us found our own soulmate, that’s when the PROBLEM arose:
“OK, gang, the Christmas party will be on December 23 at Lise’s!”
Response from several people: “Forget it—we’re already going to Mathieu’s left-butt-cheek cousin’s house.”
So, we’re trying to find THE date… you know, when everyone has 3–4 parties and there are about 35 of us total—well, that adds up to a whopping 105 parties… Now, try finding THE perfect date to get all 35 of us in the same house!!! GOOD LUCK!
Oh, and it’s not over yet—whose place are we going to now? One aunt’s house is too small, another’s too far away, another’s too out in the woods, another’s too this, another’s too that… ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Finally, we find THE place, and we agree that some people won’t be able to make it; no big deal, we’ll “FaceTime” them later that evening.
And then comes the question: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO EAT? Okay, sure, when we were young, our aunts were full of energy—young, newlywed moms, “come on, let’s cook!”… These days, we keep it simple! Should we order in? Spaghetti for dinner? Hey guys, we’re not doing dishes, so we’re buying disposable tableware, my friend—no stress. BUT NO, it’s Christmas! We need a CHRISTMAS dinner, come on! So now, the young ones (actually, the new young moms in the family, who are almost married—HAHA) take care of everything, and the aunts are super happy!
This Christmas, unfortunately, I’ll be one of the ones missing THE party that’s so hard to plan! I won’t be able to laugh and run around with the 8 new great-grandkids who’ve joined our big family of 35 people… or catch up with my cousins… No big deal, it’ll just have to wait… A poolside BBQ dinner this summer…!!! BUT… good luck to us finding a date… we’re going to have to plan this three years in advance, HAHA!