Christmas Tidings

This was a Christmas for the books. It was a mixed bag of sorts. We laughed and cried. We missed Mom terribly and we were greatly blessed.

Here are a few highlights:

Some dear friends of ours came caroling to us the Sunday before Christmas. Dad and I both cried. It was an answer to a prayer.

We had our Raclette dinner on Christmas Eve and realized that Mom knew all the details and we didn't so much. We made notes after we were done eating so that next year we'll be better prepared. It was still enjoyable and next year it'll be fabulous! ;)

Christmas day was here, there and everywhere.  I went to Dave's in the morning then we went to his dad's house then his brother's house then we stopped by aunt Peggy's house then finally back home for dinner and presents. The Hanlins were in the Springs with Jeff's family then over to Peggy's then on to Dad's and they got there about when we did. And that's where things got a little interesting. As you can imagine, all those stops took a little longer than we had anticipated so we got home about an hour and a half later than planned. That meant that the meatballs in the crockpot were....mostly burned. Yum! And the soup in the other crockpot was maybe a little over cooked as well. Before I left I had cut up fruit and measured out all the spices for wassail. I gave Dad instructions - Pour the cider in a big pot, add everything in this bowl and let it simmer for a couple hours. I was really excited for wassail! (I wasn't super excited for soup or meatballs...)

As we were sitting eating overcooked soup and burned meatballs (I think everyone was just trying to be nice and eat it anyway - or maybe they were just glad we were finally home so they could eat...) I took a sip of the much anticipated wassail. Oh dear. It was not good. Not like a little not good. It was really, really not good. There was almost no flavor - it was so weak. I thought, "Huh! I would never have thought wassail would get so weak from simmering too long. In fact, that's just weird. And dang, that's a really big pot of wassail to just throw out." Turns out Becky was thinking something like "I don't want to tell Carrie her wassail isn't good but..."

We even got Becky's kids to try it. They didn't like it.

Then Dad said, "I wonder if I put too much water in that wassail?"

Me, "You put water in it?  Did you use all of the cider?"

Dad, "Cider?  What cider?"

We all burst out laughing - there's no water in wassail but there IS cider.  And it was all in the fridge. Later that evening Dad, standing at the fridge, said , "Now I do kind of remember you saying something about that cider..."

We laughed about that all night. And maybe for a couple days afterwards. Dad is no longer in charge of the wassail.

Despite the hard moments wishing Mom was here with us it was a good Christmas with family and friends and laughs and blessings and memories. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!