Hehe...what a great node idea!

This is how we do it in the old abandoned Fort Detroit:

Sleep in late, late, LATE on Christmas Eve, 'cause you're gonna need it. Around about four or five o'clock, head on over to the InLaws for the party. There's mountains of food, and about thirty to fifty people crammed in a basement. Funnily enough, they're mostly Catholic; I dunno what that means to their Faith...Well, some are Southern Baptists, but I try not to think about that. Anyway, at least one basement corner will be filled, floor-to-ceiling, with presents. It's astounding. As the people troop in, the presents are divided into piles in front of each individual, and dinner begins, buffet style with much talking and bonding. During dinner, all presents have remained untouched, except for the "little things"--every guest or family brings a "small gift" for each of the children, which amounts to the kids getting TWO piles of presents; one before the unwrapping, and one after. Hey, it keeps 'em quiet. But eventually, somebody blows the whistle (usually literally, yes) and the whole ensemble goes apeshit, tearing, exlaiming, and moving on to the next one; the whole family unwrapping at once. It seemed rushed and unappreciative to me too at first, but I've since learned that the reason for this is to keep the party goin'--when you're done unwrapping, you still have to walk around and spend hours seeing what everybody else got.

Go home. CRASH.

Christmas morning is when MY family does presents. This is the sedated Christmas, which is more than welcome when you're still trying to kick the hangover from the night before. One present at a time, ooh and ahh, read the labels. As a result of this, opening the presents in my four-person family takes about four to five hours, compared to the ten to fifteen minutes in the big family; but this is how we compensate for getting less presents on that side. But it works out well, because it's dinner time (2 or 3 on Xmas) by the time we're done. Oh, and my family is Catholics too, except for me. I guess we're all desperately wrong...but we have fun. Man, I can't wait. Get me outta work and GIVE ME A PRESENT!!!