October Christmas 2023

By my rough count, forty-nine people partook in October Christmas 2023 at the Driftless Area Inn. Mom hosted nine offspring with five bringing mates, fifteen grandchildren with five bringing mates, three nephews bringing significant others and one bringing their two kids. I’m not mentioning names here as I do not have permission from each individual. I am including a photo that captures the bulk of participants in hopes that no one will object to their image being on this low traffic family website.

This year the Inn allowed access at noon on Friday. If our locations in the future allow early arrival, I think I will try to take advantage of it. This Inn had some trails through nature with much peace and beauty to enjoy on a weekend blessed with ideal autumn weather. That night a few of the grandkids utilized the firepit outside and discovered an autumn evening walk means wet grass.

Saturday lunch gathers the bulk of the crowd. This year we had roast turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes (hand-mashed using a might masher), ham, bbq pork, cowboy beans, green bean casserole, corn casserole, tomatoed cabbage, squash, buffalo chicken dip, Hawaiian rolls, veggies with spinach dip, fruit with dip, chocolate dirt with worms, marinated carrot salad, creamy broccoli with raisins salad, pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, bread pudding with bourbon sauce, and likely a few things that are slipping my mind.

The snacks and sweets buffet squeezed in those desserts next to a cereal snack mix, two kinds of caramel corn, a popcorn-pumpkin seed snack mix, peanut butter chocolate bars, old fashion cut-outs with lemon royal icing, raisin oatmeal cookies, coconut cookies, M&M cookies, gum drop fudge, and likely several things I missed.

Games are always a big part of the weekend. The facility provides ping-pong, foosball, yard games, and billiards. We bring cards and board games. I witnessed the action of Iota, The Gap, Simpson’s Cards Against Humanity, The Mind, Bang, The Great Dalmuti, Three Dragon Ante, Uno, Dirty Uno, and saw a bunch of games stacked up that may or may not have been played outside my observation. The largest group game played was the annual SNOOP! with prizes brought by many. It is always a hit with the progression of winners from table to table; the prizes for each win, lowest score total, and no wins/highest score total; and the excitement of playing each round.

In addition to leftovers, we enjoyed jalapeño poppers, soup, cheese bread with marinara, concocted beverages ranging from craft wines and liquors to coffee sweetened with a bourbon syrup and Russian tea from mix. A few folks had gifts to share bringing the spirit of Christmas to our October family get-together. The clear favorite was the presence of each other.

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