By Kelcie Huffstickler, Blogger of the Month

One of my favorite “traditions” is getting together to celebrate Christmas with my mom’s side of the family. I think back to as young as I can remember, and I see myself sitting in my Nana and Papa’s living room. I’m Indian-style on the carpet, scrunched between sixteen first cousins, and the grin plastered on my face is identical to theirs. We’re all talking a notch louder than usual, and the room is shaking with excitement.

Only a portion of the presents fit under Nana’s 4-foot tree, so the rest are piled on furniture and cover half the room’s floor space. After passing out each gift to its designated owner, one of my older guy cousins shouts “1, 2, 3!,” and we simultaneously send paper and ribbon flying.

I adore those memories.

As years have passed, though, almost all of us cousins have married and started families. And the chaos has multiplied as each family has grown. Attempting to fit all of us now into a typical living room would be almost a sick joke.

Thankfully, a few years ago, my Nana and Papa moved into a much larger house. Though it was a little sad to see our memories boxed up and shifted around, we were so happy for them and excited that we’d finally have room for our growing family to gather. For several years we enjoyed holidays in their spacious, renovated old home. It had a large dining room, two living areas, and seemed like the perfect hub for a multiplying family. Unfortunately, it just couldn’t keep up…

In our family, we joke that at every get-together, we take a photo of all the girls who are pregnant. (And really, it’s not a joke; it’s true.) In just a few short years, we outgrew my grandparents’ new home, and this year, we held Thanksgiving and Christmas at our church’s family life center. There are now 56 of us total. (2 Parents, 6 Children, 5 Spouses, 17 Grandchildren, 12 Grandchildren spouses, and 14 Great-grandchildren)

At the time of this photo, there were also three girls who were pregnant, and since then, another has announced a pregnancy. So it doesn’t look like we’ll be fitting back into a house anytime soon.
There is a little piece of me that misses those shoulder-to-shoulder Christmases in my Nana and Papa’s living room. They were wild, yet intimate… simple and memorable. But I’m thankful for the stages of life, and right now, I wouldn’t trade anything for my family that’s multiplying faster than architecture can keep up. I feel richly blessed to be part of a family that values family, a family that all likes each other enough to keep showing up for holidays, and a family that keeps having babies because we don’t know what else we’d rather be doing with our time…

A family Christmas that requires an industrial-sized kitchen and banquet tables wasn’t something we envisioned sitting in that small living room on the cozy carpet. But if it takes a 10,000-square-foot building to house the blessings God’s given us, then we’ll break it in right with flying paper and ribbon, and we’ll celebrate the fact He saw fit to bless us so.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20