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Every year about this time, I pull out some holiday photo albums so our kids and grandkids can enjoy the memories of our family Christmases. Most of the pictures make me smile, but the ones of me on Christmas morning make me cringe! I always look like I've had too little sleep and too much fudge. Exhausted!

This year when I pulled out the stack of albums, I re-discovered a bright red leather one stashed in the back of the cabinet, which reminded me of the source of some of my Christmas exhaustion. It contains pictures of our annual family Christmas party that we hosted for nearly ten years—starting before our youngest was even born.

There are pictures of kids with chocolate-smeared faces sitting on Santa's lap and unwrapping gifts that came from a name-exchange. Little girls wearing red velvet dresses and toddler boys in bright holiday sweaters singing Christmas carols as we lit each of the five candles on an Advent wreath. Fun!

Yet, am I the only one who sees the mess in the background of these pictures? Wads of wrapping paper and pieces of toys already separated from their packaging. Drink cups waiting to be spilled. No wonder these pictures remind me of feeling overwhelmingly stressed. This family party started out so simply, but slowly grew into an annual holiday tradition that nearly ate Christmas. At least for me.

That first year, we wanted to create an event that our children could help host. So we invited about five families with kids to a party. A friend with a Santa suit volunteered to surprise the kids. We set up a Cookie Factory where everyone could decorate their own cookies, and sent each of them home with a little ornament-gift-favor. All seemed doable at the time.

From there, the party began morphing. Each family had more babies so every Christmas we had more children. We added a family or two each year because new families became important to us. Besides, they had heard about our Christmas party, and we hated to leave anyone out. The party survived a move from our old house to a new house, the stress of frantic last-minute Santa-substitutions and other creative new additions. Like one year, I invited the moms who played an instrument during their childhood to bring it and play with our carol-sing-along. I led this out-of-tune chaos on my accordion!

Each year as the party grew, I had to start earlier to tackle the necessary tasks. The day after Christmas became the best time to buy sale items for next year's party, such as napkins and plates and appropriate ornament-toys for each child's favor. I kept a file and menu memos and notes to keep children from getting the same name in the gift exchange. I saved and edited scripts from the Advent wreath ceremony, careful to assign the speaking parts to different children each year.

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