Even though the kids are pretty well-behaved and people help out with the cooking and cleaning, the hostess -- my sister -- gets very stressed out and generally ends up mad and upset. Every year, I think I won’t go,

Every year, my husband and I, having no children of our own, travel several states away to spend a few days around Christmas with my sister and her husband and their grown children and grandchildren -- a total of 13 to 15 in all.