Take–out Christmas



We had spent the early part of December in Maui and returned home to enjoy Christmas.  We still wanted to host a traditional holiday dinner with friends and family, but were short on preparation time.  Much to one of our grandchild's dismay, we approached the holidays in a more casual way. Pam, the décor elf recycled some silver decorations from past years, added stars and created a lovely scaled down theme.  Like the good elf she was, she crept out while I slept*. 
We thought about having a smaller tree.  Earl loved the idea.  My time had come — the tree Nazi was going down**.
"But Grandma.  You need a big tree!" she said determinedly.
"OK.  How about lights and no decorations?" I replied.
Earl was wise enough to stay out of that fight.  He stood back to see who would prevail.  It was tough, but the two holiday dictators (grandmother and grandchild) managed a compromise.  My holiday tree elf* provided a big, well lit tree without decorations.  And they said I would never be able to negotiate.  So  there.  

 Earl and I should have seen it coming, but didn't — the maturing of the grandchildren. They had aged out of some more juvenile holiday traditions, indulged us with some, and embraced others. 
"Elf on the Shelf?  Seriously, Grandpa?  Why don't you pass it on to some child.  I'll be the Northwest Elf on the Shelf."  
Zoe, at 13, did put up the Christmas village.  She approached it more artistically than I ever did.  We're still not sure if she was indulging us or is she a kindred holiday spirit***.
One thing we didn't want to scale back– lots of people and good food.  Since Earl and I owned plenty of Thai décor and love Thai food, we planned a big takeout holiday dinner.  Great food and no one had to prepare.  We could also have some control in accommodating a variety of food preferences–vegetarian, gluten free, food sensitivities, omnivores...What we didn't think about was all the food arriving at once at the last minute.  Oh well.  The most important component — the people were there.  We had around 25 friends and family.  Even Santa showed up.
The lesson:  This year, it wasn't about the tree and Christmas in excess***.
*Previous post: The Holiday Elves
**Previous post: The Holiday Dictator
***Previous post: Christmas in excess

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