And so this was Christmas..

And what have you done? 

Is it only me? I mean I like cooking, love to have everyone gathered at my house and every year I'm surprised that after these days.....life just goes on! And you know what? They will have to eat tonight as well!

When I woke up this morning and looked back this was my checklist:

- cooking: check!

It all went very well, it was very tasty, hot when needed, enough and not too much. Pic up there is the slow braised rabbit peeking out from under it's blanket.

- family: check!

We were there (eh..that's here), almost all of us who were able too, we missed the ones who couldn't make it but there was lively conversation, laughter and fun. On Christmas Eve there were 12 of us, 2nd Christmas Day we were 7. I'll give you the menu shortly.

- decoration: check!

Even the obnoxious lights in our tree were all adequately doing what they were supposed to do. Each and every year the Husband In Charge of the Lights steps back with a satisfied sigh and gets approx. a week to enjoy his work. Then one of the strings goes out. And another. So we have to replace strings. In a fully decorated christmas tree. Sigh. This year no different. I think it's earth radiation. A sign. Whatever. I used to make all kinds of greenery decor myself and couldn't find the time this year but thanks to Intratuin's Christmas Eve 50% price-off we even had christmas decoration on our dining table (Hah! that's economics girls!!) 

- sappy movies: check!

I was vetoed out of watching Sissi, The Sound of Music... boys! Harry Potter instead and I managed to sneak in a couple of Santa movies.

- cleaning? Check!

I bet you think I'm going to spend my day today cleaning and doing laundry? Nope! Not me! Not because Santa has left some of his elves behind to help me but because we did all that and more yesterday during the day.... Why? Because my SIL called us yesterday morning with the message that she discovered her two kids (elementary school age) had head lice. They slept in our bed Christmas Eve. Yikes. Frenzy! I survived 8 years and 3 kids in school without the nasty little buggers and I was not going to deal with them now! So we cleaned house, beds, throws, clothes, scrubbed and vacuumed. Right now there are multiple garbage bags filled with our duvets outside in the freeze cold. Nice clean house, nice clean beds, all laundry gone. There's a positive side!

(Luckily I do know what to look for, I used to manage the group of parents that checked the kids regularly in school, sort of Head Lice so to speak....)