One memory I will never forget is the Christmas of 2008. For some reason the women in my family like to do everything, all at once. During this particular Christmas, my family was busy helping finalize my sisters’ New Years Eve wedding. On top of your typical holiday chaos, there was white tool everywhere and bridesmaids dresses all over our downstairs family room. My superhero mom thought it would be a clever idea to make just about every single dress in the ceremony aside from the wedding dress. To this day I still have no idea how she accomplished it all. My sister made sure not to make her wedding holiday themed, and thank goodness, otherwise half her decorations would have ended up in boxes in our basement and not at the church.
That wasn’t enough, though. My parents thought that among the holidays and their first child’s wedding they would also decide to completely remodel our kitchen and put in hard wood floors to the majority of the house. So, our house was a train wreck obviously. We were able to finish the living room floor in time for Christmas. However, this gave our house an extremely off-balanced feel. One half of our home was all neat and put together. Then the other half, being the kitchen and dining room, had no floors, no countertops, and the only working appliances were the refrigerator, oven and microwave.
I will never forget that Christmas Ever dinner. As a harpist, Christmas Eve is a very busy day. It becomes a massive blur between churches services. That evening after my family had kindly waited for me and my mom to come home from my last Christmas Eve service of the night, we attempted to eat dinner. We had to make a table out of boxes and large Tupperware bins. Then we put a large piece of plywood over it all. Our holiday meals are served family style, so filling your plate was a balancing act. I would have died if the ham balls had fallen off the “table.” We all gathered around and sat on the floor, a step stool, or a show box and feasted. All of us couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at the whole scenario. That will forever be one of the best memories of my life.
(Photos courtesy of Tumblr)