The Second Day of The Twelve Days of Christmas

In addition to the five daughters I wrote about last, we also have two wonderful sons. One of our sons, who writes Alone On A Limb, is a blogger along with three of his sisters.

A month ago, our seven children, their spouses and family members gathered here at my house on December 26 (the second day of Christmas) for our annual Christmas celebration.

Seven of our eighteen grandchildren are married now and with 15 great- grandchildren it was a large gathering. But, as with your family, whether small or large in number, each individual is precious beyond counting.

We say every year that we will keep it simple and use paper products, but the Christmas spirit energizes us and we get out the best of everything we have in the way of china, silver and cloth napkins. Paper stuff tomorrow.

But it is not a formal dinner, as 48 people, including little children, teens, college students, young married, are milling around everywhere. People are bringing in food and greeting one another with hugs and kisses.

My house is not luxurious but is a roomy ranch type with a large living room and family room joined together with a fire place. In the family room there is a large camp meeting type (early American over 100 years old). The dinning room table is also large enough to seat twelve around. Then there is a breakfast room to seat 6 and other tables set up with table cloths.

So a good time was had by all 48 people who, after the reading of the brief Christmas story from Matthew and Luke and a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing, sat down to eat and later gathered around a large Christmas tree to exchange gifts handed out happily by the smallest children wearing Santa Clause hats.