Christmas at the Everett’s is always, always chaos. You add in the ten grandkids with their new walkie-talkies and all clad in gummy boots and you have a hoot and a holler.

I’ve written often about my ten grandkids. They are pure joy. The oldest two are 15 and the youngest is almost three. You put them all together and it’s nonstop fun. Oh, and this year we had one girlfriend in the mix.

Christmas Morning

I get up early every day but on Christmas morning I have a battle plan. Get into the kitchen and start some hot roll dough, then fry the bacon and sausage for the gravy. My oldest grandson loves biscuits and sausage gravy so I make enough to almost fill up my old crock pot. My granddaughters all love my honey hot rolls and I was informed this year that my grandson Tate wanted my loaded mashed potatoes for Christmas morning. “I can do that,” I told him.

Mama makes a platter of scrambled eggs, has a ham and lots of sweets to eat. It’s getting harder for her but she still loves to do it. If opening presents at the Everett homestead is chaos, the kitchen is no exception. There are kids running in and out wanting to get breakfast over so they can start the ripping. There’s usually a dog or even two begging near the stove. And then there’s Gracie, my two-year old granddaughter. She always steals the show when she wanders about telling anyone who will listen about her visit with Santa.

Gummy Boots for Christmas

This year my ex-husband decided to get all ten some gummy boots. If you don’t know what gummy boots are, you probably are a city-slicker. They’re actually rubber boots to go running through the creek and wet grass. This time of year they’re a little hard to find but I helped Ron by going online to purchase all ten. What a joke! It took an hour-long session on the computer to find all the right sizes and to make sure that Gracie didn’t get her brother’s tractor boots but the pink ones with polka dots. It also took 4 trips for Ron to the Tractor Store because some of the pairs were not expected until after Christmas! The people at the store found alternative ones but it still took four trips to get it all right and a number of phone calls. It was all worth it.

After breakfast the fun began. I had batteried-up all the walkie-talkies and bought tins at the dollar store. I put the nine tins on the floor and told the kids to “go for it.” Then they opened their boots. With boots on feet and walkie-talkies in hand they headed for the creek on my parent’s two acres. Even Gracie picked up one of her brother’s walkie-talkies and got a kick out of hearing all the kids talking at once.

The Best Gift

In all the chaos I didn’t get one photo. I did find time to cry. Two of my grandsons bought me great gifts but that wasn’t what made me cry. They both hand wrote me a note telling me how much they loved me. It was the best gifts ever! My oldest said, “I want to spend more time with you.” Now how many 15-year-olds want more time with their granny?

With my parents in their 80s, we never know when this year might be our last one with both of them. Regardless, this was the best Christmas on record. I always know how good a Christmas it was by how many days it takes me to recover!

I sincerely hope you all had wonderful holidays and made memories to last a lifetime. I am pretty sure that all ten grandkids will remember the Christmas of gummy boots and walkie-talkies!