Reluctant Hostess Survives

I'm here! I'm alive! My extended family has gone home, the presents are opened, and my house has been patched back together (except for the random piece of "Floam" embedded in my carpet). Even most of my Christmas money has been spent! ;-) We got through the holiday without any major confrontation or rude word (which, believe me, is unusual) and enjoyed the rare holiday at which all members of my family - all my siblings and their spouses/kids and my parents - were in attendance. It was chaos, to say the least, fitting 15 people into my little house, and we spent a great deal of time tripping over one another. But we also laughed, played games, ate lots of food, and gave and received way too many gifts. I tried so hard to limit how much I got for my kids, but still they ended up with a boatload of new stuff. Of course, many of the pieces to their games and toys were already missing by the a.m. of December 26!

We have a new rule in this house that all games, especially card games, are to be played with the family and only with parental supervision. Last night, Andy and I played Uno with the two older kids while Cole and Ashton looked on, and it was FUN! No TV, no yelling and screaming, just a fun game by the fire. We really need to do more of that. Family time. Time to just sit and enjoy eachother and engage one another in actual conversation. Dinner is often at the table, but then the kids are usually bored because Andy and I, who barely get to see eachother these days, are trying to catch up on the other's day and want to have adult conversation. So this after-dinner game time gives everyone a chance to be equally engaged...and it provides an opportunity to actually keep all pieces to games intact for more than 24 hours.