When you're used to Christmas with upwards of a dozen people, Christmas for three is an adjustment.
We managed pretty well for our first try.
Rachel and I took some time earlier in the day to do all the prep work for dinner so when Steve called to say he was close to home, it took no time to heat the cheese and the oil for the fondues. As is my wont, there was way too much food, but better too much than not enough. Rachel loves it because it means multiple fondue events. We ate 'til we were full, then had chocolate fondue for dessert.
Rachel did have an unfortunate encounter with a hot fondue fork which necessitated multiple ice applications.
We cleaned up the kitchen and changed clothes, bundling up for our sally forth into the cold (we had dressed up for dinner to make it more special). I've decided that, along the making it special line of thinking, I'm going to invest in some Christmas dishes and linens. It seems rather silly to have a set of dishes and linens for once a year usage for just three people but it'll add to the atmosphere.
A friend had given us silly glasses, kind of like 3D glasses, which refracted snowmen around all the headlights, tail lights, stop lights, street lights and Christmas lights so we took those along for some additional entertainment. Town was beautiful, snow covered and colorfully lit.
We made our way back home only to discover that I'm a bad wife who forgot to fill her husband's stocking. I had passed along stocking responsibilities and it never even occurred to me. Bad wife.
Since Rachel had about 7 gifts for every one of ours, we didn't really hold to the taking turns thing. Rachel was Santa and her marching orders were basically just to dole out the gifts as they came. With just three of us (four if you count Ellie), this worked well enough.
Even though she tries to work it so that she knows what's coming, Rachel had some nice surprises. She's discovered that blogging has some unimagined benefits.
Due in part to mishaps in the past involving accidentally discarded gifts, I'm one of those who likes to collect the wrapping paper as each gift is opened. Steve is more of the chaos school of Christmas. So, in a compromise, I threw out my wrapping paper as I went and Steve and Rachel threw theirs all over the room. Rachel then had to carefully comb through the shreds as she cleaned up to ensure no unintentional discards.
We were done by 10 pm and Steve had to work early Christmas Day so he and I settled down for our long winter's nap soon thereafter (although Rachel managed to stay up until approximately 4 am watching new DVDs).
We managed pretty well for our first try.
Rachel and I took some time earlier in the day to do all the prep work for dinner so when Steve called to say he was close to home, it took no time to heat the cheese and the oil for the fondues. As is my wont, there was way too much food, but better too much than not enough. Rachel loves it because it means multiple fondue events. We ate 'til we were full, then had chocolate fondue for dessert.
Rachel did have an unfortunate encounter with a hot fondue fork which necessitated multiple ice applications.
We cleaned up the kitchen and changed clothes, bundling up for our sally forth into the cold (we had dressed up for dinner to make it more special). I've decided that, along the making it special line of thinking, I'm going to invest in some Christmas dishes and linens. It seems rather silly to have a set of dishes and linens for once a year usage for just three people but it'll add to the atmosphere.
A friend had given us silly glasses, kind of like 3D glasses, which refracted snowmen around all the headlights, tail lights, stop lights, street lights and Christmas lights so we took those along for some additional entertainment. Town was beautiful, snow covered and colorfully lit.
We made our way back home only to discover that I'm a bad wife who forgot to fill her husband's stocking. I had passed along stocking responsibilities and it never even occurred to me. Bad wife.
Since Rachel had about 7 gifts for every one of ours, we didn't really hold to the taking turns thing. Rachel was Santa and her marching orders were basically just to dole out the gifts as they came. With just three of us (four if you count Ellie), this worked well enough.
Even though she tries to work it so that she knows what's coming, Rachel had some nice surprises. She's discovered that blogging has some unimagined benefits.
Due in part to mishaps in the past involving accidentally discarded gifts, I'm one of those who likes to collect the wrapping paper as each gift is opened. Steve is more of the chaos school of Christmas. So, in a compromise, I threw out my wrapping paper as I went and Steve and Rachel threw theirs all over the room. Rachel then had to carefully comb through the shreds as she cleaned up to ensure no unintentional discards.
We were done by 10 pm and Steve had to work early Christmas Day so he and I settled down for our long winter's nap soon thereafter (although Rachel managed to stay up until approximately 4 am watching new DVDs).
1 comment:
Sounds like you had a good, though different Christmas. Glad to hear you stuck with the fondue menu, that seems like such a nice Christmas eve dinner.
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