Merry Christmas to Us!

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

Mahatma Gandhi

It's finally Christmas in the Van Netten household! The grandkids are starting to take responsibility for food and entertainment. Today's "life skill" as Ewen put it, was to make salami roses for the charcuterie board.

And, when one chef makes a rose, the other one insists on helping and you end up with three roses on the board. Note to self: make sure you buy very thin salami. You get a much finer rose in the end.

From salami roses to fruit shish kabobs. There's something to the idea of making food pretty, isn't there? The shish kabobs were inhaled and the chefs took it upon themselves to make more.....

..... and serve them to everyone.

Be still my heart.

Once a tradition is started, it is expected every year. In recent years, Christmas gifts are at the end of a challenging scavenger hunt. We've found that that gives the adults about half a hour of quiet. So lovely.

Tradition has it that the younger generation is in charge of setting the tables. Negotiations were made amongst that generation whether they would join the adults at their table this year. It took half an hour of negotiating back and forth and they ended with a consensus: kids table won out. I felt like I was watching a mini version of the vote for U.S. speaker of the house. At least it didn't take 15 rounds. Main reason they stayed away from the adult table? Adults talk too much politics.