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I realize that it's not even Thanksgiving. Jimmy cracked corn, you dig?

I'm not quite sure why I'm so stoked for Christmas other than maybe that it's a time of year that I always spend with family and we always do the same things and that brings a sense of comfort to me that maybe I'm looking for now more than ever.

Also, presents.

I've started making Christmas CD mixes and have even started shopping for presents. I'm like a guy when it comes to shopping, people. December 23rd rolls around and it occurs to me that I should probably get around to picking those things up.

I started making a Christmas list in September. I'm debating whether I should make Christmas cookies this weekend, or next. My high school friends and I have already planned a Christmas-time dinner party. Granted, we're scattered all over the country and it will take us a little longer than normal to pull stuff like this together, but we've all already decided what we're bringing to pass and have picked out outfits.

I'm even looking forward to going to church on Christmas Eve.

Of course, every year after church we go to my grandparents house for dinner so they can clean out their fridge before making their annual jaunt to Arizona. And while that is always fun, last year there was an event that remains one of the funniest family happenings of all time.

So my grandparents were acting strangely all night. It seems they had a surprise up their sleeves for dinner. We were all sitting around the table while they were in the kitchen conferencing, and we were thinking some fabulous chocolate souffle or delicious pot roast or something. Well, we kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Finally, Grandpa came out and announced that it would be another minute for the surprise, they just had to throw it in the oven for a moment.

And then--the final unveiling. And out comes...a huge shrimp platter. If that wasn't funny enough, it turns out that my grandpa had put it out in his car to keep it cool and it had frozen solid, so they'd had to throw it in the oven to melt it, and in doing so had melted a bit of the black plastic platter. So we all just kind of exchanged looks and gave the obligatory "Wow! This looks great!" thing. And then my sister Lindsay reached in for the first, christening shrimp. And she pulled up ten other shrimps that were all frozen together.

At this point, my mother lost it. My mother started laughing hysterically. And my mother isn't a big laugher. And she could. not. stop. So we all start laughing. And then it turned into one of those group laughs that you just can't stop, like when someone yawns and then another person yawns and pretty soon everyone is yawning. My sister Megan was the first to leave the table with an outburst something akin to "I'm gonna pee my pants!" At which point my step dad left the table laughing, into the kitchen, followed by my grandmother who went into the foyer, worried she was going to have another stroke. My grandfather followed her out (everyone still laughing hysterically). Lindsay got up at this point and locked herself into the downstairs bathroom while I had to leave the table and went upstairs. (Outside the the bathroom door Megan was occupying.) Toma, my brother-in-law and my mother were the only two left at the table. And they of course, couldn't stop laughing. Eventually, everyone who'd left the table calmed down and wandered back, but Toma and my mother were still at it and you immediately began laughing again.

Soon, there were shouts of "Shut up!" and "I can't!" and "I swear to God, I'm gonna pee my pants!" and "Where the hell is Grandma?"

Finally, everyone calmed and we all managed to get back to the table.

Here's the thing, though. Toma was sitting next to my mother. Toma has this infectious giggle and the poor guy had to trot it out in a moment of complete silence, which got my mother going again, and then it was all over. It took us two hours to get through the shrimp appetizer and onto the main course.

And maybe that's why I'm so excited to go home for Christmas. I want to see my family again, and I want to laugh.

I could also really go for some shrimp.

"The merry family gatherings-- The old, the very young; The strangely lovely way they Harmonize in carols sung. For Christmas is tradition time-- Traditions that recall The precious memories down the years, The sameness of them all."--Helen Lowrie Marshall