The party’s over . . .

. . . and I couldn’t be happier. The last of our house guests left this morning, and we’ve reclaimed our home. I cannot believe how much chaos, mayhem, and dust seven people can generate. As I mentioned earlier, the first family of five (plus two labradors) arrived late Saturday afternoon. J.P. had prepared chili in the crock pot, and he was shocked by the sheer volume of food consumed by three teenage boys.

Sunday involved two church services, house prep, and food prep. Our next-door neighbors and some other friends joined us for Christmas Eve dinner of lasagna. It was yummy, and it provided the first opportunity this year to use my Lenox Holiday dishes.

We didn’t register for wedding china when we got married, but if this had been in the stores during that time of year we probably would’ve. Even though I can really only use it for a short time every year, I really love it. And it probably gets nearly as much use as any china, right? Do you use yours more than once or twice a year? I didn’t think so.

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah—Christmas. We were given a brief respite on Christmas Day when our guests drove to NJ to visit my sister-in-law’s family. We took the opportunity to dust and vacuum yet again, and then we spent the day relaxing and playing sports games on the Wii. I never even got dressed. It was HEAVEN.

The masses arrived on Tuesday, and we feasted on Japanese food . . . chow mein, ginger chicken, Japanese beef, rice, and sushi. With Auntie J.J.’s cookies for dessert.

Yesterday was nutty with all those people in our house (the house that seemed so big when we bought it). There was much Wii-ing and board- and card-gaming. And of course, more food—leftovers this time.

We all heaved a big sigh of relief when the first family left yesterday afternoon and we were back to having “only” six house guests. Their departure cut our guest list in half, and the rest of us went out to dinner last night at J.P.’s favorite restaurant.

Maggie’s still recovering—she’s curled up on the couch as I write this. We’re still recovering too. From the gift that keeps on giving—we seem to have picked up colds from our guests. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

The next few days are going to be rather crazy here at Casa Sharkey. Our first guests arrive tomorrow, and the last guests (the same ones, incidentally) are leaving on Thursday. Last night I asked J.P. what he wants to do for New Year’s. He was like, “New Year’s?! I just want to get through Christmas!” He’s so right.

Enjoy the food, fun, family, and friends. Slow down for a few minutes and take it all in. Merry Christmas!

Wanna know a secret?

Pssst . . . hey! Over here! I’m not sure whether you’ve heard . . . did you know that Christmas is only a few days away? It’s so odd because usually it’s a really big deal. But this year? I haven’t heard anything about it.

Yeah, yeah . . . you know that’s a lie. What with the ads on TV, and the holiday songs that have been on the radio since what seems like August, it’s pretty tough to miss it.

Fortunately, all of our shopping is done! Now we just have to finish the wrapping, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, and baking so we can welcome our guests and begin the entertaining portion of the program. J.P.’s brothers have been planning to come to our house from North Carolina (they have 3 teenage boys and 2 labradors) and New Jersey (they have 4 kids under 10 and a border collie) to celebrate.

The plan was for Brother NC to arrive late Monday afternoon, and Brother NJ and Mom would show up on Tuesday. They’re all staying over on Tuesday night, which will be quite the adventure. Well, NC called this afternoon and said that the kids want to spend more time with their idol, Uncle J.P. So now they’re coming on Saturday! And still staying until Thursday (which was the original plan)! Fortunately NJ and family are only staying one night.

Now don’t get me wrong–I am looking forward to it. We don’t see them very often, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun. But now our time to accomplish all those tasks has been virtually cut in half, and we’re starting to panic a little bit. Well, the panic isn’t anything a few games of Wii tennis can’t cure, but still! (Would you believe we were playing tonight, with everything we have to do? Stupid! And now I’m sitting here blogging. Nice.)

But I didn’t sit down to write about all of this. Nope. I wanted to extend an invitation to you . . .

An Early Christmas Present?

So you may have been a little surprised when you saw my page load today. This is quite the switch from the dark brown template, wouldn’t you say? For the moment I’m liking this one better. The only thing it doesn’t have is a customizable header. BUT! It’s bright enough and wide enough, and gosh darn it, people like it! (You do like it, right?) And also, the comments link is at the bottom of the post. Hooray!

That’s it. My early Christmas present. From WordPress to me, and from me to you. Hope you’re not disappointed. I know some people had trouble reading against the dark background, me included. So let’s see where this takes us, shall we? Same old drivel, now with a bright new look!

I’m going to be fashionably late to Susie’s cookie exchange party. I really want to join the fun, but just ran out of time tonight. There’s a recipe for Sea-Salted Smoky Almond Chocolate Bark that I’ve been wanting to try. It sounds kind of weird, I know. The site says it’s a “treat for the more sophisticated palate.” Um . . . yeah, that’s me. And if it’s really disgusting? I also bought some butterscotch chips so I can make oatmeal scotchies. Not exactly Christmasy, but mmmmmm . . . don’t they sound good?

Perhaps I could’ve made the almond bark—and probably the cookies too—in the time it took me to update my site and write this post.

Merry Meme

I haven’t done a meme in a really long time. But I saw this one over at Mary P.’s and thought it looked like fun.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?
Does the egg nog have a lot of nutmeg? ‘Cuz if it does, I’ll just go with the hot chocolate. Especially if you have some peppermint schnapps to put in it.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
We don’t often see Santa ’round these parts, but when I was a kid he usually wrapped them.

3. Colored lights on the tree/house, or white?
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nah.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
Depends on the year. This year we’re about 1/3 of the way through it—everything’s on the mantel and the advent calendar is up, but the trees are still in the basement. They’re almost half done already, though—we just haul them downstairs as-is (we do take the ornaments off), lights and all.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
A favorite, huh? Hmmmm . . . I’m not exactly a picky eater, so this one’s tough. Oh, I know—this is becoming something of a tradition at our house:

It’s Japanese chow mein, and J.P. makes it when his family comes for the holidays. And his mom makes ginger chicken and rice balls. It’s all good.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
This isn’t exactly a favorite memory, but it’s a vivid one nonetheless. When I was in first grade I came down with the chicken pox a few days before Christmas. I was really upset that I had to miss the class Christmas party. That was back when kids could have Christmas parties in public school.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes, if there’s only one. But if there are multiple gifts we open them all. My family has always opened gifts on Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
We use white lights and ornaments from over the years. My grandma has always given each of us grandkids an ornament every year, and some of them are even hand-made. Over the years she’s done cross-stitch, needlepoint, and beads. J.P. and I usually buy a new ornament every year too. His favorite is (surprise!) Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This year we found this one: