Partridges in Pear Trees

The twelve days of Christmas is all mixed up and it makes me mad.  Nowdays people think that the twelve days of Christmas starts on December 13.  But traditionally, today is the first day of the twelve days of Christmas, and it goes through til January 6.  And it makes me mad, because now, thanks to nobody understanding the  twelve days of Christmas, Christmas Day just gets here, and BOOM it's over.  You have put all this work and thought into planning Christmas, and you haven't had a spare moment to sit down and enjoy anything because you have been so busy shopping and cooking and wrapping, and by the time you catch your breath, it's December 26 and it is over.  Presents are over, and we are all back to work, back to regular music on the radio, and the Christmas tree is in the gutter.  Doesn't it make more sense to START celebrating Christmas on Christmas day, and then continue it right on through to New Years, when everybody has a chance to relax and breathe?
So, this year, we are going to keep on celebrating.  The tree is staying up, the music is playing, and we are all still eating way too much.

Today, we got real family pictures taken for the first time in about six years,  and then, we hosted the Metcalf family Christmas party at our house.  More on all that later, but Happy First Day of Christmas to us.

Pictures of the Metcalf Extravaganza

We are such a crew now, it required three separate tables to seat everyone.  So we had a grown-up table downstairs, a teenager table in the kitchen and a kid table at the bar.  I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of the kid table, because they were done eating before everyone else was seated.  But this is the teenager table, and of course this was the table with the most drama.  Duncan thought he should be seated at the grown up table.  I told him he was a teenager for two more weeks, and would sit with the teenagers.  There was a little angst that 11 year old Stockton got seated at the teenager table, but he was pretty pleased to be there, and I backed him up.

And the grown up table.  Well, grown up in age anyway.  Some of us will never grow up.  Emotional maturity level was not a requirement.

Lucky me, I got to sit with all the best looking guys there. I have not yet learned how to take a selfie and smile at the same time.

These cousins always bring out the goofball in each other

And then Alisa and Olivia tried to hone in on my guy time.  Olivia had just fallen down the stairs and was not feeling very merry.

After the food and presents, a little lethargy settles in.

A little later on, the musical entertainment portion of the evening started, most of which can be found on Facebook in video form.  Erwann got in on some of the pickin and grinnin, which always makes Grandpa happy. And now that Will got a mandolin from Grandpa Santa, maybe next time he will get in on some of it as well.