An Actual Christmas [Adventure]

[Adventure 362]

After two days of wonderful celebrations, my body was done. I could barely get out of bed, slept on and off all day, and tried my best to deal with the pain for days.

Christmas Eve was supposed to be a relaxing day, ending with worship and a family game night. Instead, I decided the day before that I wanted to make a turkey dinner, forgetting that I also needed to bake things for the next day. 

Up early, I got two loaves of pumpkin bread in the oven, followed by blueberry muffins. While the pumpkin bread was baking, I made the stuffing. The turkey stuffed and in the oven, I prepped the cheeses and other items for the brunch charcuterie board for the next morning. Then there were dishes to do and packing food items for the next couple days and other cleaning that needed to be done in preparation for Christmas morning. By the time I was done with all of that, it was time to make mashed potatoes and the rest of Christmas Eve dinner.

Finally, I got to sit for a while and eat a delicious meal. Then Eris wanted to watch things together, so we did that for a while. Before I knew it, it was time to head to church.

Christmas Eve worship was wonderful, but felt....different. It was comforting to be worshiping in our church building with some of the members of our congregation, with music and candles and good news of great joy for all the people, after not doing so last year. But it was strange, too, knowing that my choice would have been not to be there due to increased covid-19 numbers, but I had committed to singing with the choir, and really wanted to do so. 

After arriving home, we had a family game night, then I sank into bed, utterly exhausted.

Christmas morning brought more preparations, opening gifts, packing a cooler, and heading to Gramma and Papa's house. There, Jim heated up tiny pancakes I'd made previously and made scrambled eggs while I set up the brunch charcuterie board. We ate, chatted, and ate some more. After cleaning up, we played games before heading out. After dropping a couple kids off at home, we headed for our second Christmas celebration of the day at a friend's house. 

We had good conversation and delicious food and so many cookies there were plenty for everyone to take home a bag or container of them. 

I barely remember what I did after arriving home that night. It was a struggle to stay awake, I was so drained. 

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend, but it definitely came at a price. I'm thankful I planned for a few days of downtime after festivities to recuperate.