The Final feast

   Sitting around the day after Christmas, looking forward to the final feast.

  In our family Christmas feasting tends to be a trilogy:  First episode, Christmas Eve;

     Second episode: Christmas Day;

      Third  episode: The Day After Christmas.
       The day after Christmas feast has traditionally been a big Liszkay family get-together where the Cleveland clans drive down for the day to gather with the Columbus clans,  all meeting at our house for an afternoon of – what else? Chowing down and hanging out.


Last Year’s day-after-Christmas feast.     

​      This year, however, the baton was passed to Tom’s brother Donald and his wife Mary, who hosted the post-Christmas family shindig in their beautiful Westerville home.

   The menu was:
   Honeybaked ham
   Meatballs   
   Cheese potato casserole
   Potato salad
   Green bean casserole
   Green salad
   My special guacamole dip, without which there can be no family feast
   Mary Jane's special green jello, also without which there can be no family feast
​   Cookies and cakes

​  After a prayer of thanksgiving for food and togetherness,

​        We dug in to the wonderful spread.

       
         After dinner we gathered for family photos, which is Donald’s speciality.

     Then the cousins and grandkids congregated in the basement for a game of Apples To Apples, 

...while the aunts, uncles, and grandparents sat around and chatted.

...or relaxed.

       The scene recalled to me holiday gatherings from  years ago when Tom and I were among the youngsters hanging out with the cousins in the living room  after dinner while our parents, aunts and uncles  were the older crowd who stayed in the kitchen or dining room with each other.  I remembered that  sometimes we of the younger crowd would joke amongst ourselves about our parents and their old-school ways and I wondered if our youngsters were now downstairs chuckling amongst themselves about us?
      Then the feast was over, and it was time for the clans to say good-bye, 

...leave Mary and Donald's

...and return north to Cleveland or to our respective Columbus turfs until our next family feast, whenever or wherever it might be.