Going Home Part 2

Dear Friends,
Going home is much more than theological discomfort. It is also great fun. My sister and I are very close and have been all our lives. It is always fun to hang out with her. If possible we sneak away to lunch at Olive Garden. Doubt we'll have a chance this time because our trip is so short this time. We are supposed to go up there tomorrow and leave Friday, so if we don't go on Christmas Eve we won't make it.

My mom loves to cook and is very good at it. I'm sure we will have great food at her house. We are having Christmas dinner at my brother's house. He has a tradition of ordering Omaha Steak burgers on line and grilling them on Christmas. Yum! We have burgers with all the fixin's, a variety of salads, some kind of beans, and dessert! My little family is bringing dessert this year. My son wants to make raspberry fudge. My daughter is bringing pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and I'm making cranberry stuff. You put a package of frozen cranberries in a pan with a cup of sugar, two cinnamon sticks, and a bit of water (not much), and let it simmer. Mmmm.

My brothers started a tradition of "the big game" (basketball) when they were younger and the kids were kids. Now the kids are teenagers and the uncles are late forties, so the uncles are the last chosen for the teams instead of the first! Ha. But they'll still play if they have a chance, I'm sure. Usually all nine cousins played if they could. Now I think they are down to seven or six that still want to play.

I guess it is mom's cooking that has kept our family together all these years. The cousins are really close, especially the three boys who are now 18, 17, and 17. They play video games on line even though they live in different cities. The six girls communicate mostly on Facebook. Now the oldest cousin is married with a baby, so we are four generations to gather for Christmas. When we are together all the generations often do a jigsaw puzzle and play board games, especially "Ticket to Ride." We call it "the train game."

The day after Christmas is cousin shopping day and my generation sneaks off to the movies. My mom gives each grandchild an invitation to lunch as their annual Christmas present. Normally the cousins get together and search the internet for restaurant reviews, picking out where they want to go this year. Each kid gets to pick the restaurant of his/her choice, but they like to go in groups. So, the week between Christmas and New Year's usually finds mom taking a handful of kids to lunch at least two or three different days. This year all of this will be different as most of us are leaving on the 26th. We have a lot of traditions to fit into just Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Going home is really a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it. After all, church isn't everything.
Imagine a wonderful holiday break everyone,
Mary