Holy crapoly, who think special needs kids are an inconvenience? That thought horrifies me. I am so sorry that anyone would make you feel like that.
Wow, that is a lot of cooking. I always love hearing about the yummy things you make.
My younger son, as some know, can be challenging and has meltdowns.
My mom lived in California until August of this year (and now at 85, doesn’t cook - we had her here for Chanukah over the weekend), and my sister lives in Israel - so none of my family close enough to spend the holidays with.
My husband’s parents in WV would have us over, until my FIL passed 10 years ago. My MIL is in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s - she had to move out 3 years after my FIL passed - we hadn’t realized how much he compensated for her until he was gone. We now own the house. My sister-in-law, who was a special ed teacher, wants nothing to do with us - they live 2 blocks from our house. My adult nephew (33) - her son - has a house 1 mile away. He is married and has two toddlers. I haven’t met either toddler yet, even though we go to WV regularly - he is always too busy to see our kids, even though they idolize “Cousin B” and ask about him all the time.
Anyhow, we are the ones who asked to stick as close to planned mealtimes as possible, because my kids are/were the ones who didn’t do well when dinner wasn’t on the table at 7 pm, even though we were told 5 pm. And younger ds sometimes obsesses, especially about his presents, and dominates the conversation. We aren’t a lot of fun sometimes, but family should be somewhat forgiving; ours aren’t. So, we do holidays alone - although now that my mom is up in Rockville, we will host her for the Jewish holidays.
Anyhow, last December I had a major reconstruction surgery on 12/14, and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and was so sick at Christmas that I didn’t make much - just the turkey and dressing - we had the sides and desserts catered. And this year we did Thanksgiving at the Grand Floridian. So, the boys and Dh have all been missing our traditional foods - Christmas Eve dinner is a repeat of Thanksgiving just with different pies - and I want to give them the gift of homemade Christmas dinner. The plus is that we will have leftovers for a few days!
So, the pan of rolls is rising in the kitchen, Christmas Story is on the t.v., and I’m about to go make sausage balls. I’m trying it with Red Lobster biscuit mix - as mentioned on the sausage ball thread - this year.
You all are my family too - and it is wonderful to have you all here with me today.
![:love:](//storage.proboards.com/5645536/images/W4b_Om5roEadLiOzGo_l.jpg)
Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!