Christmas Eve = Marathon

With a large family I've become a pretty organized person. The task of planning, buying, sorting and wrapping gifts for 7 wonderful children, a dear husband, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins is a mammoth job. I usually start buying gifts sometime after the new year and continue watching sales throughout the year. Even though I work hard to be prepared and to be on top of the game, Christmas Eve is always a flurry of last minute activity.

On Christmas Eve Jim and I cloister ourselves in our room to wrap the gifts. I've sorted the gifts for each child and usually set Jim to wrapping. Often, we bring a TV and DVD player into our room and watch some marathon of movies. One year Jim watched video after video of James Bond. I'll often put in musicals. This year, it was Narnia and "Rumpole of the Bailey." In years past we've finished them with no time to spare before unwrapping them. Somehow on this day, I also prepare for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals while I clean the house.

Once the food is prepared, the gifts finished and the house tidy, we settle down as a family to eat a special meal and then open our gifts. Each year is a little different, depending on whether we are traveling out of town to either grandparents.

Some years I think I will give only gift cards. Or just a check. Or maybe I'll get our food ready-to-eat from Sam's Club.

Naaaaaahhhhh.......