Together we stand

by theflyingacc, jasper, GA

My fianc� and I wanted to celebrate our first Christmas together by having both our families together for the first time and our best friends too. We planned this for months, we made lists of things to do, freshly painted the rooms, planted winter flowers, decorated, baked, made candy and even got our friends involved making their specialty items for our event. Our home looked like the front cover of a design magazine, everything was perfect!

The smells of Christmas filled the air, the fire burned brightly in the fireplace, the goodie dishes were full, the liquor cabinet was full, the wines were chilled!!! Our friends arrived first to calm us down and support our efforts. It was a wonderful and joyous time, we could not have been happier.

Then my mom, dad, and sister arrived first, casually dressed. “It’s too hot in here,” said Mom.

�Didn’t you over do it?� asked my dad.

“I feel sick and need to eat something right now,” wined my sister, and that started the downhill slide! My fianc��s family arrived dressed to the hilt, and the first words that came from each and every one of the seven mouths, without exception was, “why did WE have to dress up?”

The popularity of the alcoholic beverages began to surpass the appetizers and the conversations became ones of my kids are better than yours. Our dream was becoming the worst nightmare…

We will serve dinner and perhaps that will help!!! We removed the turkey and stuffing from the oven to cool and began setting things on the dining room side board for serving and then invited the bickering family to the dining room. All were seated and the conversation changed to one of our beautiful presentation. �There is hope of success,� we thought as we went to the kitchen to carve the turkey and that happy moment ended in what we found: My Doberman, Schan, had lifted the turkey from the stove and spilled the stuffing on the floor, she and her sisters, Heller and Bea, had chewed on every inch of the turkey and spread the dressing all over the floor and lower cabinets. We cried! Our friends (the angels from god!) made the announcement to the family as we cleaned the mess in the kitchen.

We will never know what all our friends said, but the bickering ended, “nothing” was said about the disaster in the kitchen, and nothing but peace and joy filled our home for the rest of the evening…