Family Parties

I believe that most families in this world have at least someone in their extended family who is a bit eccentric--really meaning a bit crazy but since they are our family we use a word like eccentric rather than crazy. In my family, it happens to be my mother's side. This is not to say that I love that side of my family, however it makes family parties something to dread.
Christmas just came and went and as we are all familiar that means having family parties. Normally my dad is the comic relief at these parties and makes it endurable to watch whatever mishaps are going on, but my parents are in the process of a divorce and obviously my father did not come. The drive down was not too far but all of my siblings and I were dreading the moment.

My extended family is quite large and there is somewhere around 25 grandchildren among six children. There have been many new additions in the last few years to the point where I can usually tell which kid belongs to which one of my aunts and uncles but their name is almost always lost to me.

To spice up the party, I suggest that before we arrive we take bets on when dinner will actually start. This is also the downside to having a large gathering. Getting food there and ready takes forever. It is a known fact that dinner will be served way later than planned so eat a snack on the way there. The party was to start at 5:30--and this was when dinner was supposed to start as well mind you. I took the starting times from everyone. The earliest starting time that was guessed was 6:15 and that was by my mother. I don't know about anyone else but when I get hungry I get cranky. And as you can tell, the outlook on when we were going to get dinner was grim.

Shockingly when we arrived most everyone was there. I suppose it helps that my aunt and uncle who are generally about an hour late to all functions were having the party at their house--not too mention they usually seem to have something vital they are bringing to whatever dinner party we are having so we have to wait for them.

My entire family was shocked when dinner was served at 5:51. This was our Christmas miracle. I actually enjoyed dinner and was having a good discussion with some of my cousins about who they were dating and what teenage drama was going on.

But of course, the party doesn't end after dinner. Then comes the moment where grandma and grandpa want to pass out their presents that they buy. Now it is important for you to understand what my grandmother is like. She loves all of us very much but also wants us to pay attention to whatever it is she is saying. This means that all of us have to be entirely quiet. Now I don't know when the last time you walked into a preschool room (which is close to about half of my family), but getting all the kids to be entirely quiet is pretty much impossible. But don't worry she tries to make it happen. I was grateful this year that she didn't have it at her house. Not only is she really worried about everyone hearing what she is saying, but her house is full of breakables and is one of the most un-baby proof houses possible and she insists on having little kids not touch anything in her house. Just imagine that chaos. Back to the current Christmas party. Since I have watched my grandma for years and years hush everyone during parties I thought it would be amusing to make a bet and see how many times she shushed someone at the party. Once again I collected the bets and we kept tally while the explaining of the importance of Christmas was going on and the passing out of their presents and the present exchange.
While I can't quite recollect all the bets that were taken, I do recollect the grand total: 63 times. Mind you this is probably in an hour or less time period. My sister and I had a hard time not breaking out into laughter every time the count got higher. It did make everything much more enjoyable.