Last night I figured out what's so fun about Christmas. When I was a child, it was tearing off the paper of a present and finding the surprise inside. As an adult who gets few, if any, presents at Christmas, the fun is a little different. Instead of presents, what you get is the entertainment value of twenty different personalities from around the country in one living room. And that's never boring.

Everybody is a little odd in his or her own way. We have quirks and peculiarities and differing ideas that make family gatherings extra fun. Add to that the fact that half the group is blood related and the other half is what my family affectionately calls outlaws, and what you have is an unscripted sitcom waiting to happen.

Any time you get a group of people together, there is what Pastor Rick Warren calls an EGR. Extra Grace Required. I know what your doing right now. You're picturing that person from your own family who qualifies as the EGR. Every family has one. And I have it on good authority that if you can't figure out who that special person is . . . it's you.

As for my family, I have a feeling I'm married to the EGR. I guess that makes me Mrs. EGR, and I have a feeling we're raising a whole passel of jr. EGRs, but that's okay. Our family will never be boring. And with the variety of personalities in my extended family, holidays will never be boring either. And that's what makes Christmas so fun.