Christmas Eve

Every year the Christmas Eve dinner for the Rhoton side of the family is at our home. The siblings all got together 5 years ago and decided it would be at our house as it is the biggest. I loved it at first! I would clean all week, touch up paint and decorate the house. Lots of work and love went into it. But as the years have passed, I became resentful of having to do all this and was not enjoying it anymore. I was having a bad attitude (which I never do:))
This year I have had to work my 80 hours this week and the first 2 nights have been very busy, not to mention I have been by myself. My boss gave my LPN the 4 days off and did not replace her. So I have been triaging phone calls and making visits in the middle of the night. The kids are also out of school so I have not had a chance for a nap. The house has not been in perfect order. I was stressing and not feeling the christmas spirit at all-I was just thinking of all the work I had to do for Christmas Eve.
My kids must have sensed something was not right with mom as they were the best helpers cleaning. I usually have to repeat myself 20 times and start yelling to get them to help. This day was different. The house started to become clean, the turkey was cooking and the kids were all getting along. I still was going on no sleep but that was ok as I was so pleased with kids. I gave up the touch up painting and just let things go as they were. My husband came home early and started setting the table and putting up the extra table in the front room for the kids and cousins to sit at.
My sister in laws, Fayella and Lawrette, arrived with their families. My in laws arrived. There was such a fun loving spirit in the house! The kids were running around outside (50 degrees here and finally stopped raining) and cousins were all having fun. We ate our food and were having a great time talking about Christmas's past. Then my sweet sister in laws cleaned the entire kitchen and did the dishes. Wow! I got to sit down and just relax.
We played the White Elephant game with the adults while the kids watched Scooby Doo's Christmas. I got a bath set and Rich got some really old videos-if only our VCR worked! We had a great Christmas Eve and my spirit has changed. I realized it does not matter if the house looks perfect or is perfectly decorated. It just mattered we got together and created family memories.