holiday review

It was a spectacular holiday season!  All children (now that they are in their 30's I really should find a word other than children but.....) were home and made things very special.  We started with Noche Buena which was made even more special by the unbelievable weather - we had the porch open and people were out on the deck sitting around the picnic tables and I had the air conditioner on in the house!  It was close to 80+ degrees here and HUMID!  I was wearing a sleeveless top and sandals.  It was the Florida Christmas my husband always wants.  Other years people have had to walk through piles of snow just to get to the house.   This was the first Christmas ever where we all hung out on the back porch into late into the night.

Then all too soon the children had to leave and the house was quiet.  I actually enjoy the opportunity to get things cleaned up and stop providing meals. I'd forgotten how much people can eat.  When the children were growing up I always had 5 people for every meal, and then usually had an extra nanny, child or my parents at the table.  I could whip up dinner for 8 on no notice.  Now, buying and cooking those quantities doesn't come as easily.

We had a quiet New Years Eve followed by a brunch and an open house at friends homes here in our neighborhood.  We walked from one party to the next on New Years Day.  The following day was my favorite of the whole holiday - the day we took the decorations down!  I actually hate Christmas decorations and celebrate when they can be put back into the crawl space until next year.

Finally, there was a cocktail party at a friend's home on Sunday evening to cap off the holiday season. We all laughed that we were going to have to have a detox since we'd all partied so much over the holiday season.  I think that fasting should also be part of our January plans although I tend not to eat much when I've cooked the food so I didn't actually gain any weight.  Now I've thrown out all the cake, cookies, and pastry and frozen all the meats for future meals so we are back to normal foodwise.

And finally yesterday, the weather got cold cold cold so I made plane reservations for Florida to escape the cold.

Happy Winter!