When the children were little, I would generally play Santa Claus and pass out the gifts to everyone present.  This is done one at a time and everyone ohs and ahs over the gifts.  It takes a long time but the kids enjoy it.  Now, however, the children are all older.  And for several years the kids have together joined into Santa Claus and his helpers.  So after dinner the main meal and after the desert the children sort the presents into stacks and then present them to those who are there, one at a time.  Lia has taken charge of this activity for several years.  This year while she had two helpers to sort the packages, Lia took over the whole job of getting presents and passing them out.  She did a good job of coordinating the activity.     Hmmm - maybe Juhee did not want me to take her picture with the elf hat on.  She did not wear it the rest to the evening.                      When I first met Juhee she was in a hospital and weighed only 1 pound 2 ounces or  510.291416 grams.  I was afraid to hold this little tiny child.  We did not know if she would live.  We certainly did not know she would develop into such a beautiful young lady of such emence talent.  Each time I see her and hear of her life experiences, I am amazed by her.                                 While people wait for the present openning time - they mill about and chat       Julianne and Prakash chat a bit.  They may be talking about politics.  their beliefs are similar. Both are against war and are very happy with the newly elected President of this country.  But it was an interesting evening in that no one I heard brought up politics.  In retrospect I think that that is because the great rage we have had for the last 8 years with extremely poor and harmful governmental policies is about to end.  I think we in that house that night have a collectively felt sense of relief.  In short, we have hope.       Perhaps Julianne is just resting - she washed a couple of loads of dishes while waiting for the present time to begin.       As I say, people mill about and chat with one another.  Casey looks up to see if there is food somewhere for him, and if so how he can get to it.   After a short interval, the presents have been sorted and arranged for passing them out, so the present festivities  begin.