Benny and I are doing things a little differently this holiday season. By the time you read this, my family's official Christmas celebration will have come and gone.

This year, we are all going to gather in Birmingham at my sister Debbie's house the weekend before Christmas.

She is always the &#8220hostess with the mostess,” so we are assured an early Christmas weekend of good food and festive decorations.

Little Abbigail (Abbi for short), Debbie's seven-month-old granddaughter, and a most adorable child (I am not a bit prejudiced) will be christened at their church on Sunday.

Even though we live several hours apart, my niece Heather, Abbi's mom, is so good about sharing her little one with us.

Heather brings her down for quick visits and keeps us updated on Abbi's latest gorgeous pix through an online photo gallery.

(Once upon a time, I took about a million photos of Heather with my trusty Nikon SLR. She is just carrying on our proud family tradition.)

Of course, a new baby in the family and Christmas mean TOYS! Now that all our nieces and nephews are grown up, I revel in shopping for their children.

Between Abbi and her sweet stepsister, Hope, on my side of the family, and Denise and Jason's three little ones on Benny's side, I have a really good excuse to rove the toy aisles and try out the latest kiddy gadgets.

OK, so I have played with Abbi's &#8220Laugh-and-Learn” Puppy a few times (entertaining and educational) and summoned up nostalgic feelings when I picked out Hope's Holiday Barbie.

Hey, I'm not the only overgrown kid in the household.

I heard a strange &#8220schawp-schawp” sound emanating from the living room the other night, right after Benny arrived home from work.

&#8220Hey, what are you doing?”

&#8220Nothing…just playing with the Spiderman gloves.”

I guess Christmas brings out the kid in all of us.

No matter how old I get, I still love hearing Linus recite the story of Jesus' birth for a down-in-the-dumps Charlie Brown, and seeing the transformation of Scrooge (Alastair Sim in the 1951 version is superb) from a miserable, tight-fisted grouch to a giddy, warm-hearted gentleman.

I still love driving around and seeing the Christmas lights and singing songs like &#8220Jingle Bells,” &#8220Silent Night” and &#8220Rudolph.”

And I still get a kick out of those weather reports from NORAD each Christmas Eve when the flight jockeys track Santa's sleigh for the nation.

I hope your holidays are full of wonderful memory-making moments.

Merry Christmas!

n n n

A postscript: Apparently there was some confusion about the identity of the young family man, Allen Ingram, who assisted me during my misadventures in McKenzie recently.

The

&#8220Allen” referred to in my column is a blonde-haired McKenzie resident, not to be confused with dark-haired animal control officer Alan Ingram of Greenville.

Angie Long is Lifestyles reporter for The Greenville Advocate. She can be reached at 382-3111 ext. 132 or via email at angie.long@greenvilleadvocate.com.