The Best Christmas Ever (and no candy)

We had a beautiful Christmas this year.

We celebrated early with my family because my sister had to get back to her husband who had to work through the holidays (restaurant business). We exchanged gifts and talked and played.

We even had dinner at my folk's house. We took all of our own GAPS food, mostly prepared in advance. The rest of my family had all purchased and processed foods.

It was quite funny to be setting out plates of home cooked food for my family while my mother bragged about how she didn't have to do any cooking this year. She laid out perfectly cut slices of Honeybaked Ham on a nice platter, dumped potato salad out of a plastic carton into a nice bowl, dumped a bag of salad into a salad bowl and set out the prepared salad dressing. The list goes on. We had ham that had been smoked in a smoker in our back yard the day before. We had long green beans cooked in coconut oil and we had avocado, sauerkraut juice, sauerkraut, and broth. We were full and content. No one even balked when the rest of the family had packaged pie and coffee with flavored creamer right in front of us and I realized that I had forgotten to bring any dessert. I think we were too full to care.

On Christmas Eve, we put the little ones to bed after dinner and watched The Nativity with our older three children and talked about the real meaning of Christmas.

In the morning, we snacked and opened stockings one at a time. It just happened this way. The older kids helped with and enjoyed their younger sibling's surprise and joy as they discovered what treasures were hiding in their socks. Then they enjoyed each other as they each explored the depths of their own stockings. I think it went from the youngest to the oldest. No candy. No snacks of any kind. No junk either. Their stockings were not as full as they have been in previous years, but everything was enjoyed and appreciated. It was wonderful.

We ate and then opened presents, one at a time. This was child led. Everyone enjoyed each other and no one was impatient. This is how I remember it. It was just our family of seven and it was beautiful. Everyone was delighted with their gifts and Mommy and Daddy were delighted with their children. Then everyone played all the rest of the day, except for cooking and necessary chores.

No candy, true...but there was no crying either (well, maybe a little. After all, two of the seven of us are under four).

Truly, I think it was our best Christmas EVER!!!

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I almost forgot this! We had a lovely Christmas dinner with all of the grandparents at our house complete with turkey, stuffing (made with GAPS bread from scratch), green beans with sautéed mushrooms and onions (instead of green bean casserole), and pie!!!

I broke down in the middle of the day and gave all of the kids a bit of honey and two pecans. That was their Christmas treat! Next year I will skip it if we are not in a better place (but we will be) because the next day was really rough after the nut binge and the bit of honey. Live and learn, but Christmas Day could not have been any better.