I know for most of you Christmas is right around the corner.  But for us Christmas was last night when we entertained my husband’s family here at the house.  We planned for days the seating and menu, worried about the weather and the guest list.  I cooked for a couple of days before and finally the day arrived.  Husband and I moved worriedly among the rented tables, adjusting table cloths, finding the odd spiderweb up along the ceiling, checking the butter dishes, napkins and plate numbers repeatedly.  So much last minute stuff and I knew the family would arrive early and set me all off  kilter.

Which of course they did.  The invites said 4:00 p.m., dinner at 5:00.  Most everyone had arrived by 3:30, and they arrived hungry.  Thank goodness I had made one extra h’orderve dish’!  So they munched on ham roll-ups (including some with dill pickle inside, based on the grocery store cashier’s recommendation.) and cheese and peppers dip and the last minute artichoke heart, spinach and cream cheese dip along with crackers, pita chips and other munchies.   The teenagers made short work of all of that and then everyone was waiting for us to finish with the roast beef and ham.  And of course the beef wasn’t cooperating and wouldn’t come up to temperature even when we cranked up the oven in a panic at the end.

Finally at 5:20, which wasn’t all that late considering the original plan, we sat down to eat.  I was so frazzled by then I don’t really remember things, but I am pretty sure all the food was wonderful because when everyone left last night there were hardly any leftovers!  I guess I should measure the success of a dinner party by the amount of food I have to put away later..the less the better…right?

Katie stayed in the bedroom, occasionally barking and even howling, but mostly she stayed quiet and probably slept.  I checked on her a couple of times and she was anxious to see what all the commotion was out in the living room, but we had too many little kids running around and screaming in play to let her have free reign.  She’s not used to little kids and we didn’t want to risk having a crisis, so she waited it out until the little ones left.  Then she came out and entrained the adults with her obedience and rollover tricks.  She even played fetch with our 94 year old aunt!  They thought she was adorable.   And of course she is.

So our Christmas is pretty well finished, at least the large part of it.  Christmas Day my aunt will come up from Ann Arbor for dinner, but it will be a quiet, small affair.  I guess I should figure out what that menu will be but in reality I’m not going to get excited about it till at least Tuesday!  Today is a day to sit with feet up and eat the few leftovers we have.

And maybe take Katie to the park.