During the holidays, most people can’t wait to open presents and decorate their house, but for R&B singer Patti LaBelle, she just loves to spend time with her family. In a new interview with People, Patti said that her two granddaughters, Gia, 3, and Laila, 1, have changed “everything” about the holidays for her.

“This is the little one’s first Christmas,” she shared. And when Gia and Laila come to visit, Patti doesn’t mind them running rampant through her house. “Any day that they come to my house, they take my jewelry, they play with everything, they break things, and I thought that I would have a fit. I don’t mind! I let the kids get away with things that I would never let anybody get away with.” She added, “I would let them make a fool of me on holidays.”

For this Thanksgiving, Patti is planning to host 20 people for dinner and around 150 people for Christmas. Though her family offers to help her cook, Patti likes to do everything herself. But she did say that the one person who she doesn’t mind cooking with her is her granddaughter Gia.

“The kids come over and whenever I’m doing anything in the kitchen, Gia, the oldest one wants to help,” she jokingly explained. “And I would let her help, and she gets her little dirty hands in stuff and I would have to cook it and eat it.”

The reason why Patti doesn’t like any help from her family in the kitchen is because she’s a firm believer that too many cooks spoil the broth. “I want to do it because they would come in and say, ‘Well I want to put this in my macaroni,'” Patti explained, and she doesn’t want anyone to mess with her recipe. So if Patti’s family asks her to help, she jokingly tells them to “stay away!”

patti-labelle-cooking
Getty Images

“Just cut up some onions or stuff for me like on the side and leave the kitchen,” she said. “Let me just cook and prepare everything by myself.” Patti can do it all!