So, now it’s Christmas Eve (Wednesday). I was hosting dinner. One of our guests had bowed out, so it was just the basic 4 of us – Dad, Susan, Tessa and me. Who’d lived through that dreaded Christmas of 2022 where I was hosting for the first time and was a jittery mess, and still wanted to come back and do it again.
I woke up quite early and used the unusual energy to prep the potatoes for the au gratin and run the china through the dishwasher, as well as hand-washing the flatware. (I should have also run the fancy glasses through the dishwasher, will do that next time.) Ran out to Parva, our wonderful bakery up the street, to pick up the bagels and sourdough bread I ordered. (That bread was fantastic and lasted quite a while.) We decided to save the bagels to have with salmon the next day, so had toast or such. Somewhere along the line I made the Pillsbury corn muffins – also too sweet, but a nice contrast to the sourdough bread.
Set the dining room table, did stuff like that. Guests were due at 3:00. One logistical issue that always comes up in this situation is the living room is where Dad hangs out and reads or watches TV or whatever, but I needed to vacuum and clean and set it up for the gathering. So I had made clear ahead of time that I’d need him to move to the office or wherever to read while I did that, just for an hour or so, and he got that, but when the time came, he was unusually recalcitrant about it. I was literally starting to vacuum around him when he finally sighed and moved to the office. I think it’s a Dad thing, he didn’t feel he should be asked to do that. Tough.
Unusually for each of them, Susan and Tessa showed up after the stated time. I had them help me set up the cheese and crackers and all that. We had a bit of a salsa emergency – I thought I had more than one jar, but the second jar had gone bad for some reason – so had only minimal salsa available. Plenty of other food – Tessa had brought crackers and sausage and pate, and I had cheese and all sorts of other stuff. I also had gumdrops from a previously-gifted gift tower and had put them in a bowl. They were having fun guessing the flavors, which were not fruity, but more like mint or spicy. And i picked out various Xmas CDs to play through the TV.
Meanwhile, I was making the au gratin potatoes and roasted veg and setting everything else out, and ducked out at 4:00 to pick up the brisket and the lasagna. Had the ladies set up the bread basket and make the salad (romaine, feta, sunflower seeds, dressing) and Dad do the water glasses. And then we had dinner! Brisket, au gratin potatoes, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, salad, corn muffins, sourdough bread. It was all really good. The brisket was delicious (I didn’t serve the lasagna).
Susan had brought Christmas cookies and a homemade buche de noel, and we had that with coffee afterward. Yum! And they ended up leaving about 8:30 and Dad went straight to bed and I dealt with the dishes.
Oddly enough, Christmas was going to be ‘second verse, same as the first’. The original plan was going to be that Susan would host Christmas Day at her place, but the stairs there would be too much for Tessa, and a lot of her other invited guests didn’t respond, so it ended up being the same four of us at my place again, except Susan was in charge of the food.
I woke up early and put candy in the stockings and got a present or two under the tree, then continued with the dishes. Dad got up and we had a relaxing morning, with the bagels and salmon for breakfast. There was a bit of a gift exchange, but not much because most of my gifts had been tickets to things. I did get him a couple of sweaters, which it turned out needed to be exchanged for a size up. (not a problem, the clothing store is in my office building, and I’ve now done the exchange)
I swapped out the tablecloths in the dining room and reset the table in a basic way, with the understanding that it was Susan’s show today and I’d just help. She was texting me that she’d dropped a jar of prepped sauce for the green been casserole and had to run out and find an open store with cream of mushroom soup – which she did. When she showed up, I went outside to help her carry everything in, particularly a large ham. Then when Tessa showed up, it was largely a matter of making sure everyone had snacks (Tessa had found and brought more salsa) and finding cooking implements for Susan to use.
Dinner was ham, garlic mashed potatoes (Tessa prepped the potatoes for Susan), green bean casserole, salad (? I think), more bread, and spaetzle! I’m probably forgetting something. And Christmas cookies for dessert. It was all fantastic. And lots more chat, although I wondered if we’d run out of things to talk about since it had been just the four of us generating party chatter for two straight days. Not a problem, it was great. Susan made a lot of noises about helping to clean up, but I shooed her away. We did have to pack up leftovers, though, which we did, get this extra food out of my house! It was a really lovely evening.
Friday we were due to be hit by a big snowstorm late afternoon, so if Dad and I wanted to get out and do anything, it needed to happen Friday morning. We ended up going to the recently renovated Frick Musuem (neither of us had been in ages) and that was really lovely. Home in plenty of time to avoid the snow. Friday night dinner was lasagna and salad, which took care of the rest of the romaine. And cookies and buche de noel. (And I froze the rest of the lasagna, to pull out for a little treat at times during the winter.)
It did snow overnight, so we didn’t do much of anything on Saturday. Dinner was leftover ham, potatoes and vegetables (and cookies). Susan had gifted me the Blu-Rays of Airplane! and Airplane 2, so we watched Airplane! on Saturday night and Airplane 2 on Sunday afternoon. I took Dad out to brunch on Sunday at the Q and dinner at Uncle Peter’s, so that was nice to get a break from my cooking/the leftovers. Oh yes, after brunch, we made a point to stop by the car and I brushed all the snow off it so he’d be ready to go on Monday.
Monday it was warm enough that the remaining snow crumbs had melted off Dad’s car, so after breakfast and packing, he set off for my aunt’s house. And that was the end of what was a really great visit!
Postscript: he made it home just fine the next day, after spending a night on the Eastern Shore somewhere in Delaware, although it took him longer to get home than he wanted. He’s a trooper.
Coming up: A Christmas Carol and a lazy New Year’s Eve, 2025 wrapup, and what’s next!
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