Jan. 9, 2002 – As far back as I can remember we have hosted a family Christmas dinner at our house. One of my favorite memories of Christmas is my father, who died in a automobile wreck more than 20 years ago, sitting on the couch with our then very young daughters reading with great animation "The Night Before Christmas."

I tried it for a year or so after his death, but it wasn't the same for any of us — adding an unnecessary pall to the event.
Several years ago my late Aunt Leora Simpson suggested that we open presents one at a time, so everyone can see what everyone received.
The children go first, beginning with the youngest, opening their presents in turn.
Then the adults open theirs to the right around the room.
This year there were 17 of us, which made for a full room and a lot of wrappings and such on the floor, which added to the delight of 1-year-old Eli.
Various adults and older grandchildren helped him open his presents in turn.
His contribution was to remove the bows, make a tear in the paper and then walk away.
I remarked that he would have been more impressed with a box of ribbons and bows than the pajamas and other items of clothing and the toys and such.
When he wasn't pulling off bows, he attempted to dismantle the tree in the living room. First came a couple of the large ribbons that ran from top to bottom on the tree.
Then came the large red and gold balls. He removed them one at a time and presented them to someone in the circle. They were then passed back to someone sitting close to the tree, who rehung them.
This sideline activity went well until he encountered a ball that readily turn loose.
The whole tree leaned precariously, but grandson Marshall grabbed it before it landed on his mother, Lisa.
Eli had enough fun for all of us at his first family Christmas gathering.
He won't remember it on his own, but with the pictures and recollections he will see and hear enough about it in later years to make it very real to him.
It was a memorable gathering.
•My mother, who will be 90 Jan. 19, enjoyed the Christmas gathering so much that she had to go the hospital 24 hours later on Christmas Day.
An infection brought on fever and rigors and disabled her for several hours. She did not have her medical alert or portable phone nearby, but finally managed to get to the telephone and call for help.
Jo Ann and I, along with her sister from Macon, were coming home from Tupelo, where we had gone to see what Santa had left the three younger grandchildren when daughter Celia called.
She had located Dr. Longest and he arrived just before we did. An ambulance was called and Jo Ann and I spent the rest of Christmas Day with her at the emergency room at Baptist Hospital in Oxford.
She was released a week later, and plans are proceeding for a big birthday celebration in Tupelo, which she will share with granddaughter Samantha, who will be three on the same date.
•I told Jo Ann it was the first time we had spent Christmas Day in an emergency room, but she reminded me it wasn't.
When our oldest daughter Celia was 2-years-old she, along with a host of others, came down with a severe case of strep throat a few days before Christmas.
When it became obvious she would be there through Christmas, we put together a small, lighted tree for the top of the dresser in the small recovery room, the last available bed in the Calhoun County Hospital on the square in Bruce.
Her grandparents came by with gifts and we had a very small, but happy, Christmas gathering.
Like Eli, I'm not sure she really remembers it, but her parents and grandparents remember it very well.
•On Saturday night after Christmas we received a call that the wife of a favorite cousin, J.P. Boyle of Duck Hill had succumbed to a long bout with congestive heart failure and other complications.
So Sunday, after a visit with Mother in the Oxford hospital we drove to Garner-Harper Funeral Home in Grenada to be with J.P. and his three sons and their extended families.
We were reminded, once again, that Christmas is a time for families to be together, to share happiness or sorrow and to be grateful that we can do both.