An Untraditional Christmas

For nearly 20 years, the Cushings have hosted a Christmas Eve dinner at our home. What started as a sit down dinner for 8, grew to a staggering bash for 116. Yes, in our home. And we do all the cooking, preparation, decoration, set up and clean up. It's our gift to our friends and family. We start cooking on Thanksgiving weekend and don't stop till Christmas Eve. Last year, however, on Christmas Day, we were at our friend Pam's house for dinner and nearly fell asleep in our food. We hit a wall. We thought... we need a year off. And that's what we did. So this Christmas Eve, we trimmed it wayyyyyy down, and did an intimate dinner for 15. Piece of cake for us.

The upside - no borrowing tables, chairs, professional heaters. No rearranging of furniture and setting up of dining areas inside and outside. Limited decorations, and not even any outside lights. And, we actually spent one-on-one time with the people who were here instead of cooking, cleaning and hosting. The downside - we didn't share our holiday with dozens of friends and family, some of whom we only see at Christmastime, and there weren't hoards of children running around my house. The worst part - my mother moved to North Carolina on Dec 22nd and I didn't see her for Christmas :(.

Enter Christmas Day. We loaded up the SUV with ourselves, our daughter, her boyfriend and 3 of the doggies and set off for a truly untraditional Christmas. Three nights on Anna Maria Island in a cottage by the beach. We arrived in time for sunset, and took a moment to enjoy it before heading to Banana Cabanas, a little Caribbean joint in Bradenton Beach. For Christmas dinner, we had everything from a burger and fries (Gene...borrrrring!) to jerk chicken and ribs to seafood paella to crabmeat stuffed macadamia nut grouper.

For the next 3 days, we rode bikes around the island, played tennis, and played pool at a local pizza joint with the kids. We watched movies and napped, and took morning and evening walks on the beach and on old wooden piers. The doggies were happy, the kids were happy, and we were happy and relaxed.

Will the Cushings ever cook for the masses again? Certainly. But we may have a few new traditions as well.