Not Canceled!

I think I looked at mom like she had two heads.  I wondered if she had just said what I thought I had heard.  After work on Friday I was visiting with mom and I thought I heard her say:  "They canceled the Christmas Party tomorrow."  There is no way that could be right.  The annual Lloyd & Della Williams Family Christmas Party is as much a part of Christmas as opening presents on Christmas Morning.  Obviously this was some kind of joke, because I know Aunt Dorothy would never allow this to happen.  When mom noticed the incredulous look I gave her, she started to explain.  Since a great number of the family members live outside of the Juab Valley, with the pending storm it was decided that rather than risk the potential of accidents (or worse) in the storm, they would just cancel the party.  I looked at mom and asked:  "What are we doing?"  She put my mind at ease and said that even though no one else could make it, at least we would get together with Aunt Dorothy's family.  A sense of relief rushed over me.  In combination with Aunt Dorothy, her kids and my siblings and families, it was decided that we would still meet together and have breakfast.  The menu was planned and activities were decided.

As the party is usually a big family breakfast, we decided to keep the tradition alive.  We switched to ham, eggs, hash browns, (between Mom and Aunt Dorothy they had over 50 lbs. of Hash Browns--as it was their assignment for the now canceled party.) throw in some fresh fruit, and pancakes with home made Coconut and Buttermilk syrups as well as strawberry freezer jam, we were set!  We arrived at the multi-purpose building and started setting things up.  While the hash-browns cooked (I think it was only 8 pounds cooked, maybe 10) we visited with each other.  As soon as the spuds were deliciously crisp everything else only took minutes to get done.  We all feasted to our hearts content.  After breakfast we cleaned off the tables and played a few hands of the card game Golf.  If I could have remembered the rules correctly, it would have been better, but I still had a great time.  One of the great things about playing cards is you can still visit with each other.  After games we cleaned up and headed for home.  So from a canceled party we had a make shift party that turned out to be an awesomely great time.  By my count we had 44 people in attendance (although, I am certain I missed someone).  Uncle Phil showed up in his award winning sweater from last year's party.  Baby Brody (I probably spelled his name wrong) attended his first Williams Christmas Party and it is fun to see everyone just kicking back and relaxing while playing cards and catching up with one another.  I missed the rest of the family, but I absolutely agree it is better to be safe than risk problems.  But they better be here next year, or there will be trouble!