I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season, whether that means a quiet, relaxing day, time with family, or celebrating in whatever way you prefer.

We were blessed to have a large group of our family with us at Christmas, both daughters and their children, and even our first great-grandson. That meant lots of games, jokes, laughter, cocktails, and conversations.

Only my son and his family were unable to make the trip from England this year to be with us.  We totally understand, though. It’s a huge and expensive undertaking for them to fly here. We hope to see them later in the year.

Meanwhile, Christmas here was crowded and chaotic, but also a great deal of fun. I feel tremendously blessed that my children get along with each other well, as do their spouses and offspring. We’ve had the occasional drama and disagreements, but there have also been reconciliations. I also know how fortunate I am to have lived long enough to meet my first great-grandson.

Christmas morning meant a huge pile of presents under the tree for the sixteen people gathered to receive and open them.  Yes, sixteen people. My living room isn’t huge, and sixteen people crowded the place. Somehow we all made it work. And breakfast meant large pans of food, which still generated plenty of leftovers after everyone ate their fill.

Since several people were obligated to other branches of their families, we only had eleven people for dinner. Again my dining room isn’t huge and we had to put all the leaves in the table and still scrunch a little to get everyone seated, but it worked. Thanks to many people pitching in to prepare and provide food, we had more than enough to feed everyone, with leftovers to consume in the days following.

I’ll have more posts in the coming days on a few special notes about things that happened over the holidays to make them even more special, so stay tuned.