All Is Calm

"How many people are coming for Christmas this year?" Lil inquired
"Just us..we're having a family Christmas this year" I replied. She looked confused.
"We're still trying to find the door hardware and replace the window screens from our last party Lil...its time for a little calm"

For most of our family life, Christmas has been about two months of exercising the Credit cards, followed by several days of Cleaning, 2 days of Cooking, 6 hours of Claus and Chaos, 6 cups of Coffee, followed by 2 more days of Cleaning. I take full responsibility for creating the big C year after year...around September each year the previous December is a distant memory and I start thinking about flying extended family in, shopping at ToysRUs, collecting new and exotic recipes and gradually turning Christmas into a circus. Post Christmas recovery usually involves the vascular surgeon injecting my veins and me promising to wear support hose for the rest of the year. My name is Mary and I am a chaosoholic.

My first commitment to healing came in the grocery when I bought a small turkey...can't have a big crowd over with a small turkey right? I shopped online, limited the kids to 6 wishes on the Santa list, and delivered everyone's gifts ahead of the event. I cleaned the house...but not well enough for company. I slowed the pace...making fruit cake and creme brûlée a few days ahead, leaving lots of time for leisure, going to the movies, visiting friends, eating cookies. I went off the cooking grid and made up my own recipes...Tony has always gobbled anything I cooked for him and the kids don't care so it seemed like a low risk proposition....mostly. Tony bought me a blow torch for the creme brûlée but I now have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen so no problem.

To my surprise, we had a Calm Christmas....everybody was happy with Santa's selections, lots of time to try out the new toys, a leisurely dog walk on our sunny green Christmas day, lots of food, sugar and wine, topped off by family movie night with Mr. Poppers Penguins. Could it really be this easy? Me thinks we have a new Christmas family tradition.