We hosted Christmas Eve at our house this year and it was really nice if not a little frantic as time ticked on during the day but that’s normal for us, lol! Obviously, Chooch and I are of NO HELP to Henry in the kitchen but I at least cleaned the bathroom and living room and got the table set and the house mood-prepped, while Chooch was the designated “OH SHIT can you go to the store and get all of the things Henry forgot to buy” runner.

To his credit though Chooch did attempt to bake cookies (I forget what they were actually called – something about slamming the cookie sheet onto the counter after they came out of the oven, but they were essentially just sugar cookies) but he got immediately frustrated with using a hand mixer so Henry had to take over and do most of it while Chooch stood there antagonizing him. Ah, the harsh tones of two surly men sniping at each other in the kitchen, I’m going to miss that when Chooch goes back to Philly next week. :(

I think this was when we were looking for the Christmas tray for the ham that Kevin was bringing, lots of slamming and metallic rummaging ensued. And sorry if my unread message count stresses you out, you should see the number of unread emails I have on my phone (it’s over 10,000, you’re welcome).

 

I’ve been really into Romanian club hits which apparently the actual genre is called “Popcorn” – that makes me love it even more! So I had a YouTube playlist going on the TV to set the “mood” – right when my mom showed up, a video of half-naked girls wrestling in oil was playing. She just kind of glanced at it and kept on walking past, lol. Oh, Romania.

The incomplete dessert station featuring “Chooch’s” cookies. Henry also baked an apple butter pie (I FOUND THE RECIPE) which was legit fireworks on the palate – the perfect mix of apple and pumpkin pie, really. Best of both worlds. But just in case, I had him also get a storebought sweet potato pie as backup. The apple butter pie was perfection though and made me really want to bring back the pie party next year.

Henry got this Christmas beer from Golden Age so that I could get a stamp (lol) but it ended up being worth it regardless because it was SO GOOD. I think second to Belgian beers, I like Christmas beers the best?? I haven’t had one I didn’t like.

I like that it looks like I’m the only one who showed up to Christmas Eve dinner, but the truth behind this picture is that, true to the type of ride hostess I am, I ran to the kitchen to serve myself first, lol. So, when I took this picture, everyone else was in the kitchen getting filling their plates except for me, Chooch (who was shoving me out of the way to get to the food first) and Henry the Martyr of Holiday Hosting who waited for everyone else to get their food before getting his own. Remember when I used to do the Goofus and Gallant, Oh Honestly Erin-style drawings? This would have been a good one.

I was going to make a kohlrabi and apple salad until I realized that it involved lots of slicing and I didn’t feel like doing that so I delegated it to Henry who pointed out that the recipe was behind a pay wall (I didn’t even get that far when I found it – just looked at the picture LOL) so then he took it upon himself to find something similar and I don’t know what he did but literally all I could taste was vinegar and I hated it, sorry Henry.

The tofurky was good though.

Oh look, there are the pies!

Chooch got to talk to Uncle Ryan about football. I still can’t believe he likes football. He’s going to Cleveland tomorrow for a game!!! WHO IS THIS KID.

Annual sibling photo.

Chooch in his new Seahawks (his favorite team??) zip-up from Ryan and the “dad” Blueie slippers my mom got him, lol. College Fashion. Of course, Chooch made us play a game after present-opening (Chameleon) and said that Kevin was the only one who understood the assignment. He is so judgey! That’s why I hate playing games with him!

Other than that, I feel like I told the same stories I always tell, my mom said things like, “WHERE WAS I???” every time Corey, Ryan, and I reminisced about our childhood hijinks, and Chooch accused us of talking about beer for 80% of the night which I strongly disagree with.

Relaxing after everyone left. <3 Penelope glowered on the back porch all night, refusing to greet her guests, lol. Overall, it was a very chill Christmas Eve and so nice to have my family here. I’m not saying I was a Grinch this year but there was so much going on that I didn’t really get too much into the Christmas spirit – we didn’t even have time to have Chingumas and that was a hard decision to make because I love having parties here.

 

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