Celebrating the Holidays

It's always so hard for our family to all be in one place at one time.  Our son and his Sarah are going to school in Baltimore and D.C.  Our daughter and family are in Illinois, and my brother's family here in Hawaii all work at excruciating hours.

Christmas Eve or Day was out because too many family members were working.  No kidding!  The hotel and retail industry keeps its worker busy even during the holidays.  Therefore, we've learned that it's not the day that is important at all, but the being together.

Being the only retirees, mom, Art and I were busy on Wednesday cutting and cooking the kinpira gobo (burdock root), making the teriyaki sauce, homemade dressing, shopping for ingredients, cutting the chicken and beef into bite sized pieces, making some layered rainbow jello, etc.  We had to get as much done as we could on Wednesday because Thursdays are busy Tai-Chi days for us.

Therefore Thursday was even busier for mom to make her complicated macaroni salad, and me to make a soba salad and skewering the meat and marinated veggies onto sticks.

We made enough to share with our neighbor and for my brother and nephews to bring home left-overs.

My tall and healthy nephew, Cody doesn't like anything with mayo and cream in it so I made sure I prepared a salad that was mayo free.  This was his plate.  Dennis' family brought over a huge plate of sushi which we all dug into.

We did get together for a group photo, but felt the portrait was incomplete without my sister-in-law, Nancy who had to work.  She's been working 6 days a week.

The absolute best time for mom, however was when her grandson's and niece-in-law joined her in her family room to watch TV with her and chat.  My brother, Dennis also made sure he spent quality time with her.  It meant so much to me that they took this special time to be with her.  I think it was the best part of the party!