My son said, “It’s just 12 people,” expecting me to cook, clean, and open my home again, so I smiled and said, “Perfect. I’m traveling. You handle it—I’m not your maid,” and he went pale. – usnews

It would just be twelve this year, Ashley said.

She said it with her eyes still fixed on the little notepad in front of her, the tip of her pen moving quickly across the page like she was running a meeting instead of sitting at my dining table on a Tuesday evening.

“My parents, my brothers, their wives, and the kids,” she said. “Plus us, of course. So you’ll host.”