My Christmas Memory

The presents are unwrapped, everyone is playing with their new toys. But for me the joy of Christmas has nothing to do with presents. I have a big family. My parents are 2 among 23 brothers and sisters. You add their spouses, their kids, their kids kids, Christmas was a big family get together. Houses so packed you could hardly find a place to sit. We would sit on beds, floors, couches and chairs, front porch, anywhere there was an available space was filled by someone. Christmas at my grandparents was never about getting presents. If you did get anything it was a pair of socks out of a big package of socks, or underwear that also came from a big package that my grandma tried to distribute amongst all of the grand kids. Shopping for 30 grand kids, even just buying socks and underwear can get pretty expensive. My grandma always tried to get us a little something. That's probably wear my big heart comes from. But the presents did not matter. It was all of the time we spent with our family. As a kid, being able to be around 60 other kids, was awesome. Of course they were not all kids. Some of my cousins are old enough to be my parents. My parents are the baby's of the big family's, so that makes us the baby's of the cousins.
Anyway, all of my grandparents have passed away, and those big family get togethers do not exist anymore. But every Christmas Eve we go to my parents house, and Matt's mom joins us as well. For many years it is tradition that all of the kids sit in the floor, and my dad sits in his big recliner and gets out the big bible. This bible he received when his mother passed away, its one of those big hard cover Bible's with a big picture of Jesus on the inside. He reads the story of the birth of Jesus. We are not allowed to touch the presents without sitting and listening to him read the story first. I have photo after photo, from year to year, the kids have grown in size and in number. I sat and watched my 16 year old nephew, the oldest of the kids, find his normal spot in the floor so he could hear his papa read the Christmas Story. This year, eleven kids sat in the floor, all from the ages of 3 months to 16 years. I told my husband that I never tire of seeing all of those kids sitting at my dad's feet while he talks to them about Jesus. I hope that it is something that they carry in their hearts forever.
I didn't even want to leave last night. I miss being surrounded by the big family. The hugs, the I love yous, and just hanging out together. I cherished every single minute of it. I am very thankful that God has blessed us with so many family members all around us. I pray that everyone cherishes the time they spend with their loved ones. Maybe we should make everyday a little more like Christmas.