2023-12-25

Christmas day! Woke up at past noon, possibly close to 1pm, with the realization that our guests will be over in 4 hours! The chicken had overflowed the slow cooker (how did it expand? I was expecting it to lose volume to steam!). Shruti was busy preparing the starters, I was juggling the chicken, moving stuff into place for the large number of guests (had to take out chairs and a table from the shed), applying finishing touches to the place such as moving the couch, putting up lights in one of the windows, assembling the rug, etc etc. One last room had not been tidied - my office. That was the last thing I had to do, by which time we were expecting folks to arrive. I literally found time to call mom in the last few minutes before the first of our guests arrived, and she didn't answer! The rest of the evening was a party to remember, with about 18 of our friends and their kids over... don't think we've ever had so many people under one roof, ever! Everyone loved my cake and mulled wine, and while I did get some compliments for the chicken, I didn't really think it was my best to begin with. Shruti's starters were a definite hit too. Time flew and people began to leave at 11pm or so. After everyone had left, we got down to clearing and cleaning. At about 1am I literally gave up and told Shruti I really couldn't do any more, and went to bed. Merry Christmas!