Day 19. Party Review

After the party, because why would we think to take a picture BEFORE the party?

It seems odd to post the party review as the blog entry for the 19^th day when the party was on the 20^th  but you need to over look that if I am going to get caught up in a timely manner.  How was the party?  Amazing stupendous fantastic seems like an apt description.

So many people showed up!  We didn’t have a guest book this year but our best count is about 82 people.  We ran out of plates and Tony Lawrence-Harjo had to run to get some, and Ashley Glover had to bring more with her when she came.  I am in their debt! 

Best thing that someone brought to eat?  Right now I think it was the gingerbread cookie bars that Summer Witt brought. ALL THE WAY FROM COLORADO!  She drove up for the party and surprised Kat and I both.  We miss our Colorado peoples and this was a nice treat.  Other out of state guests were Elizabeth & Doug Worley who drove up from Abilene Texas, and Kortney & Andrew McQuade who actually just moved back to Oklahoma this week just in time for the party.

Korney, don't tell Najah!

I did forget to take pictures of the table scape and decorations this year.  I regret that because I really likes the gingerbread house theme. The best party decoration though was the photo booth back drop.  Matthew suggested it (thanks pinterest). I wasn't sure when we were setting it up, but when I see the pictures people took I am really pleased.  

If you missed the party I am sorry that you did, because I missed seeing you there and hope to see you at some other occasion soon. Any rumors that I may have started about people who didn't show up... well lets just agree your lives are more interesting the way I tell them.

Is it too soon to start planning for next year?

Day 18. Best Party Ever

Yes I am now 5 days behind.   And yes, I am running out days even if I double up. I'll figure it out.  In the mean time here is Jodi's second post this year.  I have mixed feelings about this post because as it turns out Jodi & Tom were not able to make it after all.  Jodi was not very specific in her reasons for the last minute cancellation, but given her glowing review of the party I can only assume her cancellation was for the greater good.  Negotiating peace in the Middle East or perhaps William and Kate needed some discrete marital counseling?  Who can say?  Well Jodi could elaborate, but then she would probably have to kill me.  Not that she would actually kill anyone. She has people for that. Allegedly.

Best Party Ever 2014

You may have heard a rumour that this will be the best KinKade Christmas party since 1992.

It’s true. (Snopes hasn’t picked it up yet, but it’s only a matter of time.)

You see, 1992 was the last time I was able to attend a KinKade Christmas party.

We were all still newlyweds that year. (By “we” I mean the “They’ll Never Make It” Club – Judson & Kathleen, Eric & Stacey and Tom & Jodi. Try to keep up.) We thought we were adults, but we were really still on the cusp. Yes, we were paying bills (most of the time) and drinking wine (a lot of the time), but we also had a certain amount of freedom that resulted in things like the KinKade Christmas Party. It was a given that we would drive from Texas to Oklahoma for the fete and assumed we would make it a yearly trek.

What a difference a year makes! Christmas 1993 and we were at home with a very new baby. There was no way we were going to expose a two-week old to the germ stew of a party. (I’m sure you all practice very good hygiene, no offense intended.) No biggie, we’ll be back next year.

We went up in 1994, but a rapid succession of family tragedies kept us from, well, everything. (Three deaths in two weeks has a way of taking the party right out of people.)  I don’t even remember 1995. Seriously, like I don’t remember anything about that year. By 1996, I was expecting our second child at any time and absolutely was not going to risk having her in Oklahoma. (I did go to DisneyWorld that month. Having my baby in an “It’s a Small World” boat seemed much less repulsive than having her in Oklahoma.) Another couple of years of just “stuff happens” and suddenly we are locked in to spending all of December involved in The Nutcracker. For eternity.

Every year the invitation would arrive and I would open the calendar, full of hope that this would be the year. Every year it took about 10 seconds to realize that unless cloning and /or teleportation were involved we’d never make it.

Each year became a little harder to bear.                                                       

It’s not like I didn’t see my friends. It’s not like we didn’t attend any Christmas parties at all. But no other parties could match the magic of a KinKade party. It wasn’t because they are excellent party planners (they are), but because their party is a product of the heart. There is a not insubstantial amount of time and money involved, but that is brushed aside because the KinKades want to bring a little joy to their friends. That’s the difference between A party and THE party.

Twenty-two years after our last appearance and we are finally making it back. You know to what I am most looking forward? The feeling that they kept the party going all these years just so it would be there when I came back.

Because that is how the KinKades throw a party.

Day 17. Just a Dip

Still working on that cookbook deal…

Somewhere there is dip, I think, Green bowl perhaps?

Every year people express delight with the party dips we serve.  The dips are good with veggie crudités, crackers or chips.  They are not difficult to make, and truthfully I think what impresses people is that they are not the usual hidden valley ranch dip, which to be honest tastes sort of like chemicals in sour cream.

So if you have successfully followed my eggnog recipe, and have done my easy party appetizer recipe, you can manage this one.  You get bonus points if you have made my cookie press cookies too.

Judson’s Easy Party Dips

You need equal parts sour cream and mayonnaise.  For our party I usually do one cup of each.  That will get you some leftovers you can enjoy later since you will forget to eat at your own party, like I do.

Next you need a squeeze of lemon juice or one teaspoon or so of vinegar.  The teaspoon is the smaller one of the measuring type spoons.  Don’t get it confused with those really long handled spoons. Those are for eating an ice cream Sunday. I don’t know why, I don’t make those rules.

Now comes the hard part.  You need about a 1/4^th cup of an herb or spice, and finely diced vegetable that goes with the spice/herb.  Did I lose you? Look it is not that hard.  I do dill and green onions, easy peasy.  You can also do basil and chives. Diced sundried tomato and that Italian seasoning that you throw in the spaghetti sauce.  You can do curry powder and diced onion or a tiny bit of minced garlic (if you do a handful of garlic you will regret it). You can do a version of tzatzkiki sauce with diced cucumbers and dill as well.

Mix really well and then refrigerate for 4-6 hours before serving. 

You have a confused look.

Look, it isn’t that complicated, take a small handful of the dried dill and add it to the sour cream and mayonnaise, then add about the same amount of diced green onions.  Now add the squeeze of lemon juice and stir.

Don’t forget to add salt and pepper ‘to taste’.  That means until you think it tastes good. 

Put it in a pretty bowl and serve with veggies or crackers or both.

\

*** I really like the dill one.  One year we used the leftovers on asparagus with salmon for Christmas dinner, it was delicious.

Let me know how it turns out.  If you are good maybe I’ll share the boys deviled egg recipes.

Day 16. Traditions and Christmas.

Today's entry is From Nicole Rodriguez.  Finally a guest blogger I did NOT go to college with!  I often say that Nicole is my oldest friend in OKC, meaning that I have known her the longest, but people always take it wrong. Go figure. Can I help it if people choose to believe she is geriatric? Nicole and I met through work when we both were in the bilingual reservations department for Howard Johnson.  Recently she told facebook that she delighted in driving my crazy back then.  Truer words have never been spoken.  However there must have been a spark of something worth holding on to because all these years later she is still my friend.

A couple of weeks ago she graciously let me invade her house with 12 or so kids and their parents for our annual ornament party, even though her girls are too old and too busy to participate any more. That is true friendship for you.  Nicole's girls are so similar to my boys that I know I have someone who absolutely understands my parenting woes, and vice versa.  Her Thalia and Matthew are two peas in a pod.   I love her and her girls and I am very glad we are friends.  Here is what she wrote


I'm not much for traditions and holidays. I was young when my parents divorced in the 1970's.  it was unusual and I was the only one in town with divorced parents *queue pity party music*.  

So growing up thanksgiving was with Dad and Christmas with Mom.  Until mom decided to become a minister and we moved then moved again... I never had the same Christmas twice.  

Then I moved to OKC, there I met Judson at work, and later became friends with Kathleen who then helped me get a job with her.  I went through my own divorce and sharing my children on Christmas with their father.

Nicole 2006 or 2007?

The only thing I have done more than 5 yrs in a row is the Kinkade Christmas party. I have been to their apartment and then the house near Ann Arbor then the house on 15th then 16th. I have left the girls home when they had a fever. I have driven through icy storms and good weather.  I have dressed up, worn ugly sweaters and sometimes just gone as is. I still have ornaments and a random gravy boat they gave me one year.  I don't make gravy but I cherish that gift.   Then they moved, and I intended to caravan to CO, but timing and finances never jived.  

Nicole & Lexi 2004

I'm so glad they're back.  I can honestly say I feel more full of the Christmas spirit when I have the Kinkade party to attend.  It IS the one Christmas tradition that has lasted the longest for me, even longer than my new tradition of Midnight mass started AFTER the Kinkade party tradition.  I ❤️ the Kinkade family.

Thalia & Lexi 2003

We love the Rodriguez girls too!  and it wasn't a gravy boat it was a soup tureen and it was full of cookies when I gave it to you! ~judson

Day 15. Party Party Party

Our Party is less than a week away and once again we are less than ready.  This year we are having the party at the Fireman’s Hall, which makes it easier and also harder at the same time.  It is easier because I do not have to clean the house.  It is more difficult because I feel pressure to decorate the hall so that it looks as nice and beautifully appointed for the holidays as my home does, allegedly.  Also this year since we are asking people to bring things I don’t have the pressure of a million things to bake and/or cook to prepare, or to be more accurate, Kat doesn’t have that pressure.  However we still have a list of things, and not enough time to do it.

Not the Picture I was looking for, but still a delicious picture

This week I have several guest bloggers who will be sharing their memories of parties past, and more specifically what our Christmas party means to them.  I’ll be honest, I was a little misty when I read the blog entries.  When I recovered from my Sally Fields moment, (“They Like me!  They really like me!”) I realized that honestly I don’t spend much thought on what the party means to other people.  I really should because it has been broadcasted to me for years, Elisa was what? 8 the first time she let me know?  And yet somehow I manage to belittle our party and discount what it means to anyone other than Kat, the boys and me.

This year in addition to Jodi and Nicole blogging about the party I have received text messages from friends in Colorado who are very disappointed we have moved the party back to Oklahoma.  I still wonder how that can be since we only had 2 parties in Colorado and they were under attended, but I guess the lesson is that it is not about the quantity, it is all about the quality and Kathleen really knows how to put on a quality party.

So if you are in Oklahoma City, or you are planning on being in Oklahoma City on Saturday December 20^th and you have not received an invite, please let me know and I’ll correct that.

Day 14. Holiday Memory Bank

Today we have another Guest Blogger, the clever Dr. Leslie Kennedy Hollis.  Leslie is another of my OBU classmates.  I have two favorite memories of Leslie.  Freshman year someone told Leslie that God had told him they were going to be married.  Leslie wasn’t even dating the boy, so she said that as soon as God let her know she would give him, (the boy) a call.  Such Sass!  The other memory was about a year after we graduated and Leslie and Jodi were in town to see Becky and I met up with them at Becky’s tiny apartment.  Kat was on a trip with Stephanie and I explained that Kat had left me that weekend.  Leslie got very concerned and asked if I was OK.  I hadn’t been clear and she took it that Kathleen had LEFT me.  Why would that even be an option?

Now that she is a grownup she is a Doctor and living in Texas. Yes, THAT, Texas with the cowboy boots and the football and “Bless your heart”.  In spite of that she is still really smart and she volunteered to share her version of Christmas traditions.

When I think of the Christmas holiday my memory bank is filled to the brim from my childhood. My mom LOVES Christmas. She is all about the lights, performances, multiple trees in the house and especially picking and wrapping the perfect presents. Yes, my mom was Martha Stewart, before Martha.

Of course, I love all those things too. I always imagined creating for my child a Christmas as magical as the one I grew up with.

But God has a sense of humor. I am blessed with a child who loves his parents, but struggles with gatherings of greater than about 4 people. That means that the big family Christmas present opening is OUT! The Christmas celebration with my mom’s side of the family, 50 + people is OUT! No Christmas Eve service because crowds, fire and autism DO NOT go together.  No Christmas parade. No Nutcracker!(If TBT could had a sensory friendly performance like Pittsburg I would be there in a heartbeat!)

What I am learning is that the spirit of Christmas is not about what makes me happy. It’s what makes my little buddy happy. He loves the tree (and carries some of the ornaments around). The Veggie Tales nativity has a prominent place in our living room. Curious George Christmas Monkey plays all the time and flameless candles are autism friendly.

So, it’s not the Christmas of my childhood. But it is the Christmas of my son’s childhood. And that’s what it’s really all about.