Wow, did I really go a whole weekend without writing a blog? I mean, I guess that's what happens when you're recovering from the flu and celebrating Christmas.
Both my husband and I have pretty big families. Our immediate families are pretty small - mine was originally only 4, and now that we're blended, it's 6. My husband's was 5. But now everyone has partners and/or children, so even those events are getting pretty large. And the minute you extend them, they explode. I'm going to get it wrong for both of my in-laws, but I believe they're each one of 5. My dad is the oldest of 8, and my mom was the middle of 7.
You just can't host small holidays with this math.
Our families both had Christmas parties this weekend, and Saturday was the smaller of the two events with only 15 people. There was wrapping paper everywhere, a lot of mac and cheese, and a lot of very similar gifts for all of the kids. Does that have anything to do with the fact that we gave everyone candy and gift cards? Only partly. I try to keep up, especially since I've been babysitting for one of my SILs fairly regularly lately, but I missed the one kid being into art. Oops.
It's ok. My husband picked out Pokemon cards for him, so I think we're in the clear.
On Sunday, I drove in about an hour to my hometown, and we had Christmas with my dad's side of the family. Similar characters to Thanksgiving last month, just traded out a few due to traveling on one holiday or the other. Also smaller than Thanksgiving, but not "small." My best guess is somewhere in the ballpark of 35 people, but I wouldn't bet on that number.
In case you're wondering what it's like to be in crowds this big for a family holiday, I have just a small anecdote for you. I got to my dad's house around 12:30, and I was the first one there (surprisingly). Anyway, I backed into the driveway because 1) no one ever wants to be blocked in, and 2) I didn't care if I was blocked in because I was staying until enough people had left that it was acceptable for me to steal some chairs and a table for hosting my in-laws this coming weekend.
I pretty quickly found my way into the living room where my dad was watching the Smithsonian channel. And like, cool. But it's now 12:45 and the Bills game is on at 1. Priorities. Since there is now football on in WNY, most people who enter the house are drawn to the living room like a moth to a flame. I didn't have to go very far to see most people - they came to me. Well, they came to football and there I was.
I heard my grandma come in, but the kitchen (usually the first stop into the house) was chaos at this point, so I was like "Ah, I'll catch her later." I didn't need to be between people and their snacks, the oven opening, and everyone else asking "How can I help?" No, I'll sit right here and watch our lord and savior, Josh Allen.
When food was ready, my dad called everyone together and gave some announcements about the food. In a crowd this large, you can imagine that we have some food allergies, so we were trying to figure out who had remembered what allergy, and where was it in the line-up. Hope everyone enjoys it. Amen.
Oh, that wasn't the prayer? Ok, grandma says the prayer, so again, another indication of "grandma is here." She doesn't notice me though because I'm around the corner into the hallway, tucked away looking up job postings at a place where one of my cousins works, and not holding anyone's hands because I'm recovering from the flu. (Please, no one tell grandma of my sins.)
Anyway. Food. Paula's Donuts. Lotto ticket exchange. Bills win! It's now damn near 5pm. Grandma walks into the living room to give my sister her Christmas card, and goes "Stephanie! I didn't know you were here!" And I was like "Hey Grandma! I've been here the whole time!" And when she gives me a disapproving look, my dad goes "Seriously, she was the first one here."
So, if you've only ever hosted or attended small holidays, just know that in a larger family, you can go a whole party and never even see your own grandmother! We were in the same house together for 4.5 hours, and never even saw each other.
It's also why the Irish goodbye is so easy to do in this setting. People probably didn't even know you were there in the first place!
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