Winterberry

D and I got married 8 years ago this past August. Why is this important? Because the casual china we received for our wedding is starting to dwindle to the point where we need to run the dishwasher to have dishes to eat off of every couple days. We started out with place settings for eight, and are now down to five (I think).

Normally, this isn't a big deal. C uses her princess plates (plastic) and D and I use the china. Except that ever since my mom passed away in 2004, I get to host Christmas dinner. There's 9 of us all together, and my oldest niece is past the point where she's ok with eating off plastic plates.

Over Thanksgiving, I asked my dad if I could use the china my mom had (she had special Christmas china. Pfaltzgraff, which she always wanted to upgrade to Lenox). He said sure, take it, he wasn't going to be using it ever. We stopped over there yesterday to get it (so we can run it through the dishwasher seeing as it hasn't been used since 2003).

Where's the problem, you're asking? Well, the problem came from trying to find where my mom had put the china when she packed it away after that last Christmas. I thought for sure it was down the cellar - I was wrong. I did find my dad's mother's china, but no Christmas china. Ok, there's a closet full of Christmas villages and decorations upstairs in my brothers' old bedroom. Pull everything out of that closet - no china. Maybe the other closet - open the door, shriek at all the junk piled up and close that door quickly. (When my dad goes we are so going to need a huge dumpster. Maybe two.)

I was upstairs in the garage trying to get the lighted reindeer (more decorations that my dad said we could have) out to put in the car, and I was swearing. Where would she have put the china?? I'm looking around at all the junk up there, and I spy three green boxes. Her Christmas china!! Why in the garage? I have no idea.

PS. We've got the new "Year without a Santa Claus" on - with John Goodman. Who thought that was a good idea??