Christmas Story on Crazypatterns

Dear users, dear authors,
here’s a new thread for the forum game / story game where everyone can contribute.
Here’s the first sentence—I’ll leave the rest up to your creativity.

This Christmas will be especially wonderful because...

It’s your turn. :-)

...for the first time in years, I'm home and not going on vacation.
Yeah, it’s hard to believe, but I think it’s nice to decorate a Christmas tree myself again and celebrate with my family.
Instead, I’m going on vacation over New Year’s.

It’s going to be a celebration of joy, because the whole family is getting together to chat, knit, crochet, and enjoy a delicious Christmas dinner.

... because for once I don’t have to work then, and my sweetheart has time off too. Then we can really make ourselves cozy, unwind, relax, enjoy a lovely Christmas roast, gingerbread—mmm, delicious.
Lounge on the couch and watch wonderful old Christmas movies/fairy tales.

... and the crochet hook gets to rest for a while, too.

At least, that’s how I’d imagined it. But I hadn’t counted on my dear relatives!
First, Aunt Milli called:

"Ruuuthilein, surpriiiise!!! We’re coming to your area in early December and plan to stay for three months. Uncle Pauli, the five kids, and the budgie are coming along, too. Can you get the guest rooms ready? We’ll bring the mulled wine!"

Oh dear, where are we going to put them all? What on earth am I going to cook? And most importantly, what are we going to give them as gifts? Or should I just cancel on them?

Even as I was thinking about all this, the phone rang again. This time it was Aunt Gusti.

She wanted to celebrate with everyone too, and of course the female standard poodle “Chanel” is coming along as well.
The big surprise: “Chanel” has had seven adorable puppies—and where do you think one of them will stay?...

Oh my goodness, the poodles... and then the budgie, too?
Do those two even get along?

I hadn’t even finished thinking about it when the phone rang again. It was my cousin Klara. Oh dear, Klara had two lively twins, Lukas and Maxi. Were they planning to come, too?

Of course they wanted to come—Lukas and Maxi had heard about the sweet little poodle puppies, and naturally they didn’t want to miss out on that. Unfortunately, Aunt Milli wasn’t very pleased with the twins at the moment, because during their last visit, the two of them had...

... she knocked over her favorite tall floor vase in the heat of the moment, and the living room carpet was flooded.

That was chaos. Did I really want to put myself through all that again, on a holiday meant for reflection? Anything but stress, I thought...

and, just to be safe, I took a look online for Christmas trips, because suddenly, spending Christmas in Australia seemed like the absolute best thing ever.

But I was out of luck: all the great trips were already completely booked up!

And what if I put everyone up in the huge vacation home I inherited a few years ago...? After all, it has a large, fenced-in yard and 7 bedrooms.

The only catch was that the vacation home didn’t have any heat. But with so many people all at once, they’ll warm up just fine, I figured. Especially with Aunt Milli’s mulled wine.

And besides, there was still a little time left until Christmas. I could knit a huge, warm blanket for everyone—one we could all snuggle up under together.

Oh, and actually, it was quite a good thing that the house has no heating… then maybe they won’t feel like staying that long… or even coming at all? 

Full of hope, I called my relatives to sell them on my vacation home plans, making sure to emphasize that they should bring their own space heaters because there’s no heating there and the roof isn’t quite watertight either.

Lukas and Maxi were thrilled and really wanted to build a campfire in the living room.

Holy wool!!! The house didn’t even have a fireplace!

But that won’t stop these resourceful boys. They’ll just build a fire on the patio instead of in the living room.
And wasn’t there talk that the roof might not be completely watertight? You just have to build the fire pit right underneath it...
And Aunt Milli then said, “We could just heat up the mulled wine over it!”

Apparently, the house is haunted, too :-)

All the children thought this was very exciting and, of course, told their school friends about it.

Of course, they all wanted to come to the Christmas party too, to experience real ghosts for once! Because it was said that the ghosts on Christmas night ...

are in a much friendlier mood than usual. Sometimes they even put on a fantastic light show that...

... is more beautiful and spectacular than any firework...

So it was clear—there was no getting rid of the relatives. But then, at least everyone should do their part to make it a super-awesome Christmas.

What could be more natural than organizing a potluck party? Everyone brings something to eat and thinks of a way to help make it an unforgettable celebration.

I sent a group email to everyone. Luckily, everyone was excited and eagerly started replying about who wanted to do what.

Oh my gosh, I thought a few hours and several emails later. From fireworks to roasting marshmallows in the garden to a catered buffet and inviting a theater group—it’s all there.

This isn’t just going to be a huge mess—it’s also getting bigger and bigger. At first there were eight of us, and now there are already almost thirty people.

This is going to be a village festival, not a small family gathering! What on earth am I supposed to do now? (Besides panicking)