Thanks To My Mom

I have a new-found appreciation for my mother after today.

This is the first year that Kasey and I will celebrate Christmas not surrounded by either my family or Kasey's. It's kind of a strange feeling. And not wanting to skimp on Christmas traditions just because we are at our own house, I decided to make a big Christmas dinner.

I planned out our menu and bought all the groceries. Early this week I thought I might want to get a little prep work done on Christmas Eve so that I wouldn't have to spend half of Christmas day in the kitchen.

Boy am I glad! I spent just over 4 hours this evening making a salad, putting together a potato dish, and baking dessert. Tomorrow I still need to bake the ham and the potatoes and rolls. Phew! I'm so exhausted.

And so here's where the appreciation comes in. I never realized how hard my mother worked all these years to get Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners together for us to enjoy. It's such a huge job!

Thanks Mom!