A Small Christmas Scene

My friend, travelinoma, has once again sparked an idea for a blog post. She has a way of doing that with her blog. A Christmas scene that I'll remember from this year occurred last Monday night. I have to admit that if I had had my way it might not have happened.

My husband and I were having a discussion last week about when we would put up the live Christmas tree.  Knowing I had to make Eggless cake before this could happen, I looked at my personal schedule to see when I had time. I thought I had it all figured out when my husband said "We have to get the kids here when we decorate the tree.  We've always done that."  Not wanting to add another event to a busy Christmas calendar, I shot back with "That's only because they were living with us at the time. We haven't had that as a tradition."  Quite a bit of discussion ensued concerning the validity of this tradition. Both of us were digging in on the issue. I evenutally realized that there was no way that I'd get his cooperation in getting the tree up without the kids involved.

I shot off an email to the local kids and suggested a couple of dates. When I told my husband that it would be a week before all the moving parts could be put together, he objected.  "We can't wait that long to put up a tree.  Can't we do it Monday night?".  It was Saturday night. With two of our kids in the middle of college finals and the other family having two little ones that needed to get to bed early on a school night, I was doubtful that any of them would be able to come. And with my personal schedule, I didn't know when I'd find time to make Eggless between Saturday evening and Monday evening. I couldn't make it too far in advance or my husband would eat most of it before Monday.  He also told me that we had to feed everyone supper and ordering in pizza wouldn't cut it.

With a bit of a "bah, humbug" attitude, I made three phone calls.  Imagine my surprise when each invitation was accepted.  The two college age kids told me they couldn't stay long, but they'd be there, along with my daughter with the two school age children.  In order to pull the tree trimming evening off, my husband was given the task of buying a Christmas tree without my input and going to the grocery store to pick up a few things needed to make soup. I got to the task of making Eggless cake and soup Monday afternoon after work.

If I had gotten my way, I would have missed the scene of my daughter putting the lights on the Christmas tree. There never would have been the scene of Grandpa, with grandkids on his lap, as one played an educational a game on the laptop and the other played a game on his iPhone, or of them being excited to help put ornaments on the Christmas tree. I would have missed the scene of us around the dining room table visiting and laughing. There never would have been the scene of my four year old granddaughter being held up by her uncle so that she could put the star on the top of the Christmas tree. 

There were other little scenes all night long.  For me, the entire evening couldn't have been better.  And to think that it almost didn't happen...at all.