Text 9300, 66 rader
Skriven 2006-12-26 21:00:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Season's Greetings
==========================
I didn't get a chance to say Merry Christmas beforehand but I hope every
one had a good one and is looking forward to New Year's Eve.

This was the first Christmas in 18 years that the whole family wasn't
together and the first one that didn't centre around our house. It was
less stressful not playing the host all the time but kind of melancholy
also. But the kids are older and have their own families now.

Ray and Michelle were off to France on Dec. 9th for their honeymoon.
Neekha stayed with Raine until Dec. 23 when she came to our place for
the night. Michelle's two older children, Chloe and Sebastian were on
their own at home, although their father is in Yellowknife and of course
we were just a phone call away in case a problem arose. It didn't.

Neekha and Chloe flew to Edmonton on Christmas Eve to visit Grandpa Ray
(Roslind's ex-husband) and his lady, Marlene. Neekha was very proud to
be flying without an adult. She insisted that Chloe was most
emphatically NOT in charge of her, merely a fellow traveller in an
adjacent seat. [g]

So now Seb is really on his own but apparently has a full social life as
he declined to join us for Christmas at the last minute as planned. (I
think he hooked up with a young honey at a party on Christmas Eve.)

Ray and Michelle returned to Edmonton from France around 2 PM on
Christmas Day. And Raine and Alex (but not Chuck... there may well be a
split-up in the works) are heading down to Edmonton on Boxing Day. So
Ray and Marlene are having their best holiday in 18 years. Ray's and
Raine's families will be back in Yellowknife Dec. 31 so New Year's Eve
will be our second Christmas, with the balance of the gift giving due
then.

We really cut back on our Christmas Eve open house and buffet. As
Roslind was working in Rae until Dec. 22 and I was working hard right up
to the last minute, it was all we could do to give the house a basic
tidying up, never mind planning, shopping for and preparing 10-12 dishes
for 20-30 people. We just had 3 sets of inlaws over, Raine (and Alex of
course, and there was a handful of other kids and tennagers as well) and
one more couple (Kevin and Lori, the accountant and nurse who own racing
huskies) and everyone brought a dish. Raine made a multilayered
crab dip which has become a family favourite, Roslind made two kinds of
stuffed manicotti, the SILs brought meatballs in bbq sauce, Buffalo
wings and a salad and the last couple brought a dessert platter of
homemade Christmas baking. It wasn't as fancy as previous years but we
all had a good time all the same.

The big family Christmas dinner was at my SIL's as always, with turkey
and traditional sides, as always. Roslind made some mulled cider and
some cranberry relish to take over but that was it. We did almost no
pre-Christmas baking and no Christmas Eve blow out. So as I said less
stress. We hope to get back in the groove next year though, time
permitting.

And yes, I did make up a dish of Christmas goodies for the mice. Neekha
called from Edmonton to make sure I didn't renege or forget. They got
popcorn, potato chip crumbs, one peanut each and one pistachio each. I
had Alex help make up the bowl and then give it to them which made her
extremely happy. They were comical both trying to suck on the water
bottle's tube at the same time after snarfing down the salty snack food!

Happy Holidays

Jim
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