Summary: When our kids were younger, Christmas meant a road trip. We would rotate among my wife's siblings. First to brother Bob's house. Then brother Dave's house. Then sister Laura. Finally, we would host... and then repeat the rotation. When we moved from the east coast to Kansas City, our trips got longer. It would be one of those trips that was a day and a half in the car, for a day a half with family, then another day and a half in the to get home. I would imagine that our time with family is much like your time with family. We exchanged gifts. We drew names for gifts exchange... seems most years I would draw uncle Dave's name, which is an envied choice. He's impossible to shop for, but he is the most gracious of all of us. No matter what you would give him, he will say it's perfect. You could give him salt and pepper shakers that look like nuns playing bongos and he would say, "That's perfect!" We would have a family meal together, usually turkey... you should have been there the year that everyone got tossed from the kitchen - there were seven or eight in there - and all of them experts in gravy. When you have that many gravy experts, you can stack them all end to end, and they still will not reach a conclusion on just how thick gravy needs to be. We sit at the feasting table, hold hands, and sing the Doxology for our table prayer. The meal will be wonderful. We will share updates of what's going on with each family and tell stories we have told before, including the story about the gravy experts being evicted from the kitchen. We will take the family pictures. Hugs all around, back in the car and head home. I loved the way they all decorated for Christmas. Brother Bob always had a big tree. Brother Dave had single candlelights burning in every window. Sister Laura loved her Christmas cookies and played carols on the piano. In our home there was a nativity scene in almost every room.
