During the Thanksgiving holidays my family went to Billy’s catfish restaurant in Ochlocknee. I’m pretty sure I mentioned it in a column.

We were seated and the waitress came to take our order for drinks. She also reminded us that they had some delicious fried onion rings. We already knew that and ordered a double, one for each end of the table. We didn’t want to be reaching over each other for fried onion rings.

There was another appetizer. Fried dill pickles. Please don’t think badly of my family. If there was such a thing as fried butter, we’d probably order that, too!

Everyone ordered their entrée and before our server brought them, we’d eaten fried onion rings, fried dill pickles, cole slaw and cheese grits. By the time our main dishes arrived, our appetites were satisfied and our stomachs were tighter than a snare drum’s head. There was a collective and uncomfortable sigh. “I’m so stuffed, don’t believe I can eat anymore.” We had filled up on the “fixins” and left no room for the real reason we had gone to Billy’s.

As I was thinking about the days leading up to Christmas, I compared those “busy as all get-out” days with that stuffed feeling after all the “fixins.” Our get up and go has gotten up and gone!

We start putting up trees and other decorations as soon as the Thanksgiving table is cleared. Some of us get up early on the day after Thanksgiving to be the first in line for door-busters at the local department store. Our favorite radio station begins to play the holiday classics.

Ladyfinger and fruitcake cookies and divinity have to be made, along with sausage balls and cheese straws. Most organizations feel the need to give a Christmas party and, if there is one you can attend, there are at least three more that you can’t.

Santa Claus is not the only one who has a list and is checking it twice. Uh-oh, I forgot so-and-so. I’m sure she’ll have a present for me. I’d better get her one just in case.

For the last two weeks, I have written about the Christmas traditions in my past and it’s always good to remember them each year, but sometimes there isn’t enough time for all the needs to get done. Sometimes simply finding the time to have a holiday meal with each side of the family is difficult.

Christmas Eve arrives and there is just a little time to double check all the efforts. If children are in the home, there is getting them to bed and they probably are so excited, sleep is almost impossible for them.

Finally, Christmas Day is here, but is there any room for the main dish? Just like the entrée that comes after all the salad and the bread, can you really find room to enjoy the lasagna or the filet mignon?

I hope you won’t find me irreverent or disrespectful to compare our Lord to one of our favorite main dishes. To tell the truth, there is no comparison for the One whose coming we celebrate during the Christmas season.

I’m not the Grinch who stole Christmas. I like Christmas and all the hoopla that surrounds the season. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

I just hope that when Christmas Day arrives, we are not so worn out that we can’t enjoy the real reason for the season. Let’s remember, this Tuesday, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life. Merry Christmas, friends!