Round Robin Ping Pong

There was some concern on my part whether I would/should be able to go Christmas Eve.  We were planning to travel up to the farm (about an hour away) to spend the day in the new church basement with Darren’s sisters and parents and their children (16 in all–including ours–how fun is that?!)  It’s my favorite day of the year.

I got up and started helping the children get ready, and made a growing pile by the door of things to load into the car.  All the while I found myself snapping at the children for acting like children.  My bad attitude was catching.  Pretty soon everyone was grumping at each other.  I was worried about wanting to go, but thinking I shouldn’t go.  And I had a headache.  A big one.

So I sat myself down and said, “Self.  This is the year of the happy Mama.  Whether you go or don’t go, your ONE JOB is to be happy.”  I took a couple of tablets for my headache.  I took one large pill to make sure I wouldn’t cough or sneeze for 12 hours, hopefully keeping this virus from spreading around.  Then I made a plan to go.  I made a pact not to touch food or serving dishes.  I would help clean up, but let my daughters help lay out the food.  I wouldn’t sit near great-grandma who just celebrated her 90th birthday. I wouldn’t hold the babies.  I would wash my hands. A lot.

When we arrived, my plan worked very well.  Mostly I sat back and watched the group while still feeling part of things.  Resting and noticing things. Things like DH’s Mama, who never snapped at a person, looked stressed or gave one hint at being weary the whole day.  EVEN though she made a ham, a turkey and a brisket for our crowd.  And gifts of jam and homemade pear bread.  Plus plenty of other things.

She happily licked the beaters from the whipped cream getting white fluff all over her face and just grinned.  She held each of her grandchildren on her lap to open their gifts from age 10 months to age 14 and posed for the pictures.  She played the piano for everyone to sing.  She cheerfully said goodbye to her youngest daughter, who left the party far too early for her inlaw’s gathering, and never  said a cross word about it.

And even though she doesn’t read blogs or look at Pinterest, she got the memo:  Christmas 2013, The Year of the Happy Mama.  And she pulled if off flawlessly.

The card table tents haunted my fevered dreams the week before Christmas.  The brown and pink was finished with a door and windows and little curtains.  The purple one wasn’t close. But my mother came over when I was too sick to get up, and cut a hole in it for the door.  I wrapped it up with a promise to finish it later. By the end of the afternoon, the kids had pulled the pink door all the way to the top of the table and held it down with a heavy toy.  They actually preferred the more simple tent without a door!

The entire day was amazing: singing trios with DH’s sisters; two white elephant gift exchanges, watching the kids play games and laser tag; glorious food, round-robin ping pong. But my mother-in-law’s happiness is my favorite memory from the day.