At this point in my life, Christmas is just a time to give stuff, get stuff, get stuffed and go to bed. To be honest, it is more work than play, and I have not been able to really enjoy either the spirituality of the day or the excitement of it in a long, long time.
We have Christmas at my mother’s house, where I happen to live. But a lot of the family comes from somewhere else, so we usually start rumaging through our stockings at about the crack of noon.

We have a rule that we don’t just go into the living room and start digging in. We wait…for everyone!! And then we take turns opening presents so everyone can see. And there are a lot of us. Which means we get done just about in time to eat and go home.

Now, adult family members do not exchange gifts with other adult members unless they are a parent or a child. So I don’t give gifts to my sisters or my adult nieces or nephews – I think 16 is the cut-off age, and no one in the family is within 10 years of that age in either direction. I do give gifts to my mom and my grand nieces and grand nephew. And I get gifts from…well…my mom. (more…)