It was my turn. Every year someone needs to plan the Christmas party for our large family. I found a nice place to have it, the community center across from the library in our small town. It was about 5 minutes from my home. It only cost $25 to rent for the day with a $50 returnable deposit. The center could hold about 75 people. When we get together there are about 40 of us. It also had a big kitchen and a well organized serving area. When I called to reserve in November only one day was left, December 23. I thought this was rather close to Christmas. I asked others in our family, no one objected.
The night turned out great. I spent the entire day preparing for the party with the help of my husband and children. Danny prepared a Christmas music CD and a "makeshift" CD player. Benjamin and Ginny helped me do last minute shopping. Ginny would remind from time to time details about the party or offer ideas to make it fun. They also helped me set up the tables at the community center. Samuel baked chocolate chip cookies while I was gone. Danny was the main taste tester of the cookies. Benjamin rolled, coated and baked snickerdoodle cookies. Jonathan made Nachos from 3 2 pound loaves of Velveeta cheese and Rotel sauce. Mom arrived a little early and helped me set up the food. Everyone brought a few dishes and a bottle of pop. There was a lot of food. My sister-in-law, Rachelle, made her hot punch which is fast becoming a family tradition.
Mom brought a bunch of Avon to hand out to everyone. (She slowly collects this through the year.) Everyone with children brought giant stockings that we used last year. (There are around 25 grandchildren.) We put the stockings in the hall outside our big room. Everyone brought small low cost gifts and some candy to put in the stockings. I mentioned on our family message board, if there was time and opportunity to try and make something. There were a variety of gifts and fun things for all the grandchildren. My sister Sharon painted everyone's name on an umbrella. My sister-in-law Rachelle crocheted beads on socks for the little girls. My other sisters, Nancy and Deena, made soft scarves for everyone. Although, my sister Penny wasn't there she had managed to give gifts to everyone. My brother Perry brought $5 gift cards from Quik Trip.
I love to again imagine that scene in my head. All of the stockings are about 3 feet tall and Deena had put their names on them last year with gold paint. They had a worn look to them from last year. When we finished cleaning up after eating I told all the kids they could go look in their stockings. So they easily heard me and ran into the big brick-floored hall and grabbed them. Zac, Holly, Alex, Josh, Reese, Abbie, Clinton, Samuel, Jonathan, Benjamin, Ginny, Tyler, Hannah, Ellen, Ethan, Elizabeth, Wesley, Nathan, and Kaitlyn, nineteen of Mom's grandchildren began their important task. All of them from ages 2 to 17 were strewn out across the floor as they began to sort through their big red bags of goodies. The little girl's sat in a group and showed each other their gifts as they went through them. Two-year-old Clint found an umbrella, not realizing if it was his or not, but just considered it a big fun toy to discover. Our little teenager, Holly, quietly looked through her bag of varied Christmas surprises. Even her big brother, Zac, a Senior in high school reverted back to being a kid for a while so he could enjoy the fun of the moment. Our boys grouped together as they dug through all their loot. I had fun going around just trying to capture the excitement in some snapshots taken with my old camera. Ever so often I had to stop . . . and enjoy the feeling . . . it's the buzz . . . the excitement that children bring when they don't even realize it. It was a great thing to watch them discover their gifts and then get excited in all the fun.
Their were some other "homemade" moments. Deena played the guitar while Danny played harmonica and my brother Kelly read the Christmas story from Luke 2. They used Samuel's new shiny black Bible. Then we had fun casually singing along with some simple Christmas songs Deena played. My brother Perry managed to get the guys together to sing two or three carols. When they sang We Three Kings they made their voices deep.
We had a good time. We missed all of our family members who weren't there. My little neice Adalyn was sick so her Mom and Dad stayed home with her. I want to have our Christmas celebration there again next year. I really hope we can work everything together to make next year even more memorable as we make it homemade and make some new family traditions.