and I think I have lost it. I remember how years ago we had to balance the demands from each side of the family: lunch here this year meant dinner at another place, and you had to keep track or someone would be offended that no-one turned up to Brunch the next year. Plus the washing up! If it wasn't your house you (females only) had to help wash the dishes and I can still recall the acrimony when a relation on one side did not move from her chair for this chore.
I think we went through all of this for the kids. Christmas is for children and possibly if we had grandchildren I would be less of a grouch.
I remember catering for 25 or 30 people for lunch. Even though everyone brought food, it was one's responsibility as the host to make sure it all came together. There are some dreadful memories: over beating the cream so it became butter, being confronted with a frozen whole barramundi (uncooked) at 12 noon when lunch was supposed to be at 12.30 . . . thank goodness no-one in our family has ever suffered from food allergies or intolerances. Bikkies and dips and nuts kept everyone happy until the food actually appeared on the table.
Tomorrow we are going to my sister's for lunch. There will only be 9 of us and no children. I have spent some time this afternoon making a prawn and pasta salad and a potato salad. Tomorrow morning I will make a fruit salad. All the presents will be put in the washing basket - the easiest way to transport them - but it will be rather sparse compared to some years in the past.
I have just spoken to the neighbours as they came home. Nikita is 5 and doesn't want to go to bed, but has been told by her mother, reinforced by me, that Santa doesn't come till you are asleep. Our kids knew that. We had a fireplace in our Bicton house which Santa used every year. The evidence was his footprints in the snow (talc) that was scattered on the hearth.
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