Christmas Eve Buffet

    You know it’s Christmas Eve in the Walker house when Christmas music is playing on the stereo and the kitchen is full of the women in the house all slicing, dicing, chopping, or preparing some kind of dish. When my mother was a child her mom would prepare a buffet every Christmas Eve that the family would gather and eat together. When my mom grew older she continued the tradition with our family.
    I wake up early today, before my brother and sister hearing Christmas music already playing downstairs. As I walk down my grandfather greets me with a hug. Despite the low key Christmas we had last year without my grandparents I am really glad to have them here this year. My grandfather’s face is beaming with joy and I can tell there is no other place in the world he would rather be right now. As I make my way to the kitchen I can already see the preparations in the works. I spy my mother in her special Christmas reindeer apron cutting up chicken with her trusty sous chef beside her, a sixteen year old golden retriever, husky, collie mix named Charlie who’s health has been slowly dwindling away, yet she always  finds time to mooch off whatever Mom is preparing in the kitchen. “Good morning!” I say giving her a hug, “Anything I can do to help?” After reading through the list of dishes that still need to be made I decide on making a steak teriyaki appetizer that is usually one of my many tasks each year. As I begin to walk to the refrigerator I recall how just a month ago I was here doing the same thing, assisting my mom in the kitchen to make our Thanksgiving dinner. Cooking is something my mom has enjoyed teaching us to do as her mother did when she was growing up.
    I remove the steak from a very full refrigerator and smile. After being away from home the majority of the first semester, coming home to a house full of delicious food is something I always look forward to. Nothing says, “Welcome home” like the scent of someone working in the kitchen. I then find the teriyaki sauce from the cupboard. I seem to almost dance around my mother to get a knife we both laugh as I tell her to stay in place so that I won’t hurt her as I move around her. Now all I need is a cutting board before I can set up shop. “Oh, Sydney knows just what to do!” my grandfather says sitting at the dining room table while he eats his breakfast. I now realize he had been watching me the entire time. “Well yeah, Grampy,” I respond, “Mom’s been showing me how to cook for a very long time!” I proceed to cut the steak up into strips and put them into a bowl to marinade in teriyaki sauce. Later I will wrap each strip around a water chestnut.
    Thinking of the rush the shower will later get before church in a house of four girls now that my family is hosting an Italian foreign exchange student I tell my mom I will be back after I get ready for the day.  As I walk upstairs I glance at the bare dining room table. Right now it may look this way, but tonight it will be anything but. A bright red tablecloth will be the setting for a plethora of food. Steaming meatballs, tasty cheese fondue, crisp crabmeat roll ups, delicious crepes with an apple and chicken filling, crunchy taco cups, chicken broccoli braid, a recent favorite in the Walker household, and a three tier plate of assorted cookies. I think of the people that will later join us for this meal, my immediate family including my parents, my sister, brother, and my Italian sister, both sets of grandparents, my father’s brother, and also my boyfriend and his brother. How I love being in a house full of good food and loved ones. I suddenly catch myself and fall out of my gaze. I need to run upstairs and shower so I can hurry back to help my mom. This feast isn’t going to cook itself!