Imagine if......

That's a weird title sort of an “what if” since we watched the movie 2012 it has rambled around my head. If that being, this is our last Christmas. Now, I'm not saying I believe in all the hype but it does make you think. What if........Knowing this, what would you do on your last Christmas?
For Christmas eve my grandparents wanted our family to spend it with them, usually we stop over on Christmas morning and open presents there.
Luke and Julie and the kids were there running around the house getting acquainted with everything again. Julie looked beat. Jacks rolled in late that afternoon with a huge smile on his face, before he knew it the runts were all over him.
Luke, he and I were going to go down town for a while and see some friends. Whatever it is about the holiday/end of the year, seeing old friends from school and work is different. Its like an affirmation of “we made it through another year”. We sat at our favorite downtown cafe and people watched and laughed. We snuck in the house not too late but everyone was already in bed.
That morning was pancakes and bacon and cereal to gobble up, we had a busy afternoon of going out and visiting other family and friends and catching that new western movie True Grit.
Since my G insisted on no presents this year, she couldn't shop for us because of the surgery so she didn't want any from us. It was semi The Year Without A Santa Clause at the house. Her normal feast she cooked, with planning days ahead wasn't to be, if it weren't for Mom insisting we can make it a family effort and letting G supervise, it would have been takeout for us. Jacks and Lori worked on desserts -- oatmeal cookies with and without raisins and a white pan cake with some sticky marshmallow type icing splattered with red and green sprinkles. Mom and Julie were on turkey detail and main courses and overall management. Luke worked on different sides. PG was on twins duty, more like the twins were on PG watch.
It made dinner somewhat more tasty and filling. It was a mish mosh of people running here and there washing odds and ends, the occasional “Uh oh” would waif across the room with giggles. We laughed at the lumpy potatoes Luke beat. The over brown rolls I made, the white uneven cake with red and green sprinkles.
We all sat at our respective tables grown ups and kids table, this year Lori sat with the big folk and beamed the whole night. A side the fact that Jacks slipped his tomatoes from his salad on her plate and she fake scowled at him --- nothing ever changes. We ate and talked about past Christmases and the hilarity of some of the wild presents we were given. PG would always tell us about some interesting present he got as a child, it still astonishes Lori that a simple Orange was a cool gift.
There were no presents to unwrap or paper to pack away or boxes to burn later. We didn't have to worry about next year pulling down tree decorations or lights on the house. It was nice just to sit and enjoy family. We sat and read the paper or talked or watched movies. Why haven't we attempted this before, I see now it really isn't the boxes or packages or lights that make the season.......
After spending the whole day we needed to get back to my parents house and see what Santa had left us, in some way I felt like the little guys were cheated because they had to wait so long to open presents but they didn't seem to mind. The littlest guys really didn't get the concept and Kyle and Camen were promised three Santa visits if they could hold out. So they enjoyed one at mom and dads, then when they made it home they had another and then of course at Julies mom and dads. What a life.....
We opened our gifts and gave our hugs and thanks and wondered how Julie, Luke and Jacks were going to make it home since the northern part of the state had its first white Christmas ever with over 6 inches of snow.
So for our 'next to last' Christmas it was pleasant and enjoyable.