Anticipation is only diluted by stress.
I have ordered nearly all of our Christmas gifts online or by telephone this year; what gifts I didn’t delegate to my son, Marc, and daughter, Pam, to find for me.
As of this time, I have received all that has been ordered, bought, and hunted down.
Then why is my stress level still blowing out the roof?
Well, now we are down to the part that I feel only I can do - the cooking and preparing of our Christmas meal.
We always eat about five o’clock in the afternoon because we like to give our grands time to enjoy their gifts from Mom and Dad and from Santa.
And to be a little more honest, it gives Meme and Pawpaw more time to prepare the scrumptious feast that will be on our table later on in the day.
This year, I will have 26 family members to seat at tables. I just get so excited thinking about all the people and all the noise and all the chaos of the day.
Some will help me cook some dishes — as it really takes lots of food to fill up this many people — 12 of them growing boys.
After the meal and visiting, we will move to our larger den and one of my children will “play Santa” and hand out gifts.
This year, we did something a little different. We drew names for White Elephant gifts. Never having done this, perhaps all of us (including me) did not quite understand the meaning of White Elephant gifts. There may be some rather embarrassing gifts that will be opened. Oh well!
The presents under our tree reach way out onto the floor and underneath my husband’s pool table. Some are so small they will be lost until all the others are moved, and some are so big they will not fit under the tree and have been very difficult to wrap.
The White Elephants will be opened first ,so I hope no one is so overcome that they have to leave.
After all the fun, the laughter, and the craziness of the gift opening, our house will look as if an F-4 tornado has torn through the room.
But you know what?
Our family is big, loud and a little crazy sometimes, but I want it no other way.
I love to watch each face — especially the faces of my grandchildren — as each tears away the paper to find his treasure and I love to see the elation on their happy faces.
This is Christmas at our house.
The Sims Family wishes you a very merry and blessed Christmas with your families!
I got this recipe from my sister-in-law and it is so easy and so delicious.
Crock Pot Candy
2 16-oz. jars of lightly salted peanuts
2 8-oz. bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 pounds of white bark, broken up
Pour the peanuts in the crockpot and then add the chocolate chips and finally, the broken up bark.
Set on high for one hour, stir and then cook for 30 minutes more.
Drop by spoonful onto parchment paper and let harden. Nothing is easier.
