Christmas With the Cranks

Isn't it nice to be able to gather around the table on a holiday, share favorite foods, but also share wonderful memories, and to spend time with all the people we love most?

Fellowship with family and friends - how I look forward to those times and our gatherings at Christmas - are my favorite. The presents are nice but - ahhh - the food! If I never received another present - the food is present enough!

Our guests are really great cooks. Turkey and dressing, mac and cheese, rice and gravy, banana pudding, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie... to name a few!

Makes your mouth water, doesn't it?

Which brings me to the point of this blog.

It was Christmas and we had invited all our besties to help celebrate. All the food and desserts for placed on the island so we could all “help ourselves.” Everyone had brought so much food that all the dishes couldn't fit on the island so we had to put some items on the countertops.

Can you imagine?

We said grace and everyone was told to go through the line, help themselves, find a seat – and EAT! The aroma from all the homemade foods permeated the air and we could not wait to indulge!

We have waited for this all year, right?

We were all seated around the table when we spotted a white car pulling up out front. We all watched as three people got out of the car, collected their many dishes of food and presents, and started walking toward our house. Everyone at the table looked at each other and someone said, “Who are those people? We thought everyone was already here.”

“I have no idea who those people are,” I said.

Then, we heard someone open the front door and walk in.

“Okay,” I thought to myself, “I must be wrong since they hadn't rung the doorbell and were walking right inside!” We all turned around toward the foyer. We were staring into the faces of three people who had never seen before. We all stared, frozen. Then my husband stood up and greeted them, “Hey, guys. Come on in!”

One of them said, “Oh, I think we're in the wrong house. We were looking for a white house, spotted this one and thought we were at the right one.”

My husband said, “Well there's another white house about three houses down on the same side of the street. That must be the one you are looking for, but you are welcome to stay and share our meal because your food smells mighty good.”

We all laughed. We laughed and laughed about our “unexpected” guests and how the expressions on their faces were priceless as they realized they had just walked into a total strangers’ home. But, we could all see how embarrassed they were. They said that they thought they would head on down the street to the correct house cause their family would be waiting for them, but thanks for the invite.

They took the food and presents, packed them up again in the car, and drove on down to the next white house. When they left, we figured it all out - we had just had our house painted – WHITE! That's the reason they were confused about which house to go to. After all, what more could we have asked for then to celebrate it with our loved ones... and maybe a few extra “unexpected” guests?

~ Jeannie Joyner