Survivor - Christmas Party

Call me Caroline Ingalls with a cell phone. Our power was out for 27 hours, but that did not stop us from having a simply delightful dinner party for 27 men, women, and children who we get together with every single Christmas season to celebrate. I just couldn't bear to cancel it! I cooked my 21-pound turkey on our grill with a huge pot of potatoes on the side burner and drove 5 miles to my aunt's house armed with crockpots and pitchers. The absolute funniest part is that although my aunt had electric and water, they are remodeling their kitchen and the only functioning major appliance they had was a microwave! I had to brew coffee in their bathroom and transfer it to my airpot, I washed my potato pot in their bathtub and I filled my water bottles in their bathroom sink. I only needed to milk a cow to complete that "pioneer" experience! I did all this while The Husband and #1 took turns taking a shower. Since we have well water the electric is needed to make the pump work, so the biggest problem with entertaining was the "porta-potty" experience. My BRAVE Husband appeared with 5 gallon buckets of water out of our hot tub to keep things flowing. God bless him! We also had no phone service, because all of our phones are cordless, so I pretty much drained the battery on my cell phone by the time power was restored at 1:30pm this afternoon! The good news is that I got a rocking new Home Depot brand slow cooker that is bigger and better than my current one. It was like getting an early Christmas present! Yes, I do consider things I cook with a "gift"! I kept telling The Husband yesterday that this slow cooker made my day and don't even bother getting me anything else for Christmas!

So, the party went well (the candlelight was beautiful and I did not need a stitch of make-up or to mop my floors) but, we were freezing this morning and my groceries slept outside last night (I had terrible thoughts of grizzly bears on my back porch). We're good now and I'm appreciating things I took for granted before. I actually muttered these words to GAS as we realized the power was back on....

"I can't wait to flush the toilets". Ooh! Merry Christmas to me!