A Memory

For as long as I can remember my mother hosted a Christmas Eve party. It was a big affair that required a lot of preparation. She would work for weeks on the menu, decorations, grab bag gifts, the bar set-up and so on. It seemed everyone we knew was invited, aunts and uncles, cousins, family friends and anyone else who wanted to stop by. ( Uncle Bob's brother is in the picture above) These parties lasted well into the night .( I can remember wanting people to leave because we were afraid Santa would not come because we were not bed) Mom would serve a huge buffet which always included herring. Bobby would  try and try to get us to taste it, I know I never did. Sometimes Mrs. Mundinger would play the piano and we would sing Christmas songs. When we weren't singing the stereo was playing Christmas records until it was time to track Santa on the radio. As we got older the parties were scaled down quite a bit. Eventually it was only our family which was a lot. People would stop by during the day to reminisce about the "old days". We all have such fond memories of these parties.