I've always found the holiday season to be a breeding ground for family drama...at least in our household. Once again, I have not been able to complete the relatively simple task of buying, addressing and mailing Christmas cards. So, I humbly offer this blog instead, and pray you forgive me for the lack of a more personalized greeting.

After a comically disastrous pageant rehearsal a couple of years ago, my girls quite literally became the black sheep of the church. Click Here if you missed it.

And then there was last year, when the Little Ladies were swept up in a Christmas tale fraught with intrigue, theft, a missing Christ child, and a dog held for ransom. Click Here if you missed that one. I'll give you a few minutes to catch up.

So, where are we this year? Remarkably, all is calm and all is bright. So far, we are all healthy, and the Little Ladies are thankfully not involved in a pageant which requires animal noises. The Christmas shopping is done, and all household deities are accounted for. *knocking on wood* Of course, Christmas is still several days away. Give us a few days, and we can easily give you a disaster.

But the relative calm this season is not lost on me. We are blessed. Are there areas of sorrow? Certainly. Just the other morning, Elena cried on the way to school because she misses her Uncle Dennis...how he used to play the piano for her and sing silly songs. She asked me when we can all be in heaven to see Uncle Dennis again. It quite literally took my breath away, and I was at a loss for words. But in spite of this, life is good. The girlies have made huge progress with their therapies this year, and are doing well in kindergarten. As recently as this past summer, we weren't sure they were even ready for kindergarten. Do they still have a way to go? Most definitely. But at least we're seeing progress.

Flipping on the news these days doesn't exactly bring tidings of comfort and joy. I need a stiff drink just to make it through an hour of CNN. But as our economy continues to teeter on the brink of disaster, jobs being lost on a large scale and home values plummeting, we are still in our home this Christmas, bedecked with yuletide cheer. Dmitry and I still have employment. Our girls will remain in their school this year, and for at least one more year. Things are tight, and we are feeling the pinch like most people. But, we have much to be grateful for.

In our extended family, we agreed that this year we would not buy gifts for each other. We're taking care of the children, and that is enough. But it has felt a little odd not to have grown-up gifts. Even though nobody needs another pair of slippers, or a Christmas sweater with jingle bells on it, or a fill-in-the-blank-greatest-hits CD, it has just seemed wrong that we will not be exchanging gifts this year. Until, that is, the Little Ladies unwittingly arranged to give us what we could really use the most...time together.

Elena and Larisa have been bugging me for weeks about going up to Prescott to spend time with Grammy and Grandpa. "We'll work it out," I keep promising them. But they keep nagging. We finally decided to drive them up there the weekend following Christmas. They asked if we could stay too, and Dmitry and I have decided to make it a weekend. We'll drive the girlies to snow country to let them go sledding, which is another thing they have been bugging us about.

But wait, there's more! While chatting with my sister, Rhonda, and my niece, Meg, I had the brilliant idea that they should join us for the weekend of merry-making up North. (Is "brilliant" the right word? I suppose that remains to be seen.)

"There's a reason we don't do big family weekends," Rhonda so optimistically pointed out.

She's right. We're a weird lot. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love my family. But we're weird. Throw four generations of us under one roof for 72 hours, and there's a great likelihood some of us won't make it out with our sanity intact. We'll probably end up huddled in a corner, sucking our thumbs in our Rudolph slippers. Think Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation meets The Family Stone, and you'll kind of be on the right track.

"Oh, come on," I implored. "Think of all the blog fodder we'll get out of it. It will be fun."

She shot me the same penetrating look she gave me when I boasted in the first grade that I had met Shaun Cassidy at school. I tried to maintain eye contact, but faltered. My sister can always nail me.

"Okay, maybe 'fun' is an overstatement," I conceded, "but we should do this. Please?"

Long story short, she and Meg succumbed. So this Christmas we will all be cozily tucked away up North for a long weekend of movies, cooking, sledding and even a family game night. We haven't had a family game night since we were kids. Probably because good Pentecostals weren't supposed to play games...or dance...or drink...or smoke...or go to movies...or engage in any activity that could produce mirth or frivolity. Unless, of course, it was Christian Clue, a la the Simpsons. The Human Secularist did it...in the school...with misinformation. You've got to love Ned Flanders!

Okay, so perhaps I'm exaggerating just a tad. We just weren't a game-playing family. Nevertheless, Rhonda, Megan, my Mum and I are "gamely" putting together a weekend of fun.

"We could do Karaoke," Meg suggested.

"With what? The Melodies of Praise Hymnal? We'll be at Grammy's house, remember?" Rhonda quipped.

"Be nice," I shot back. "We'll wing it."

Megan joked that we could all play Crisco Twister, but decided that this would be a little too much family togetherness.

Later in the day, I called Rhonda to inform her that I'm bringing Scattegories for all of us to play. My Mom is providing Pictionary. Rhonda's supplying booze.

So this Christmas season, as we are all rushing from one activity/commitment/obligation to another, we will take a few days to give each other the gift of time. Rhonda and I will watch our children celebrate the holiday together. We will be silly and take a lot of pictures. And there will be new memories created. That is, unless we block them all out.

I suppose, then, that my wish for all of my friends this year is that you can take some time with your own families...whether kin or created...to make some new memories. I'll be thinking of you all this Christmas, and you can be thinking of us as we're getting hammered with French Kiss Martinis and playing Pentecostal Pictionary. And if you happen to find yourself alone for the holiday, feel free to join us. We'll be the slightly inebriated ones belting out the Melodies of Praise Karaoke, which always sounds better after a little liquor...or a lot. Grab a martini and pull up a hymnal! You know you want to. Bwahahaha!

Merry Christmas to you all, and to all a good night!