Too much Christmas, Part 4

For the last 27years (since we were married) Gerry and I have hosted a family Xmas eve buffet.

Since we don't really have a dining room, it's a buffet out of necessity. But it's a full course dinner with drinks and heavy appetizers, followed by a ham, potato, veggie, roll, and more main course, and then games and coffee, and a really nice, usually homemade dessert.

It's a lot of work, but I enjoy doing it for my family. But times change, last year it became clear to me that it was time for a change. I was tired of the menu, and I realized that it was something I wasn't looking forward to anymore. I spent days getting ready for it since I made all the food from scratch, we made sure the house was spotless, and by the time it was over I was exhausted.

So, new plan for this year: I'm setting a start and end time (that isn't so late that I won't be able to get some good down time after the party-this year my guests will be leaving at 8, which gives me plenty of time to clean up and relax. The menu is going to be seriously downsized in terms of prep time. Which means I'll be hitting up Costco for most of my menu items.
And there will be no playing games this year and no prizes. Last year one of my guests took serious exception to my trivia questions, and questioned the validity of the answers. Wow, I mean it's Christmas, and there I was defending a stupid trivia question to a person who was obviously pissed that he didn't get the question right. It really spoiled the evening for me (well, that and the bigoted remarks made by an older guest to a younger guest.)
Yeah, it wasn't a fun evening.

While I can't control my guests conversations, Gerry and I can control the activities of the event, so here's hoping that these changes may bring back some fun to the holidays for us.