Holiday Hoopla

Christmas is over and thank heavens.  The holiday is a bit of a mountain to climb; all the preparations of gifts and food, keeping everyone happy and moving in one direction, the right amount of drinks and frivolous fun balanced with close family time. I would think this would all get easier as the kids get older.

There were many parts of the holiday that I enjoyed and will savor over the course of 2018 and I plan to put a little more thought into next year's plan. Next year I don't want to be the one person constantly in the kitchen preparing food. We've always had interesting meals for holidays, we don't tend to have a big platter of meat as the main course. This year we had two vegans to work with and it was no easy feat. As per my last post I did prepare an almost all vegan spread and they were delicious recipes. Even with a perfect spread it was still off.  Next year I'm just going to have a ton of Indian food pre-prepared, ready to heat back up and served around the table. 

Everyone has expectations for the day and I have a sinking feeling that somehow I was not a good cruise director. Although I think whatever plans I had made or not made wouldn't have mattered. What is it about holidays and family gatherings that bring out the negative or at least hurt feelings? It begs the age old question "why can't we all just get along? It takes a lot of empathy to understand trauma and depression and while I am a caring person I feel like I'm being slowly pulled down the rabbit hole. So instead I'm putting my whole spirit into ushering in 2018. Let it be a good and peaceful year.