One Last Christmas Celebration

Our last Christmas celebration was on Christmas day.  After our fun-filled morning at home, we dressed the boys, loaded them in the car, and headed to Grandma's (Daddy's mom's family).  Daddy's family has grown so much in the last 5 years.  We now have 13 great-grandchildren 5 and under (Evan is the oldest), and all but 3 of them that live in Washington (soon to be Utah again) were present and accounted for.  Eddie's grandfather had recently been hospitalized for a heart attack so it was wonderful that he could celebrate with us all.  The smile on his face as he sat surrounded by all the kids was pretty special.  The family has outgrown any of the families' homes so Aunt Dava reserved a space at her local women's club which is located inside a beautiful, historic home in downtown Hamlet, NC.  Everyone brings a potluck dish for this event, and we all enjoy eating and then a fun and festive game of "dirty santa" for the adults.  That's the game where everyone brings a miscellaneous wrapped gift (our limit is supposed to be about $10), and we draw numbers to see who gets to pick a gift first.  That person opens the first gift, and then the next person can either choose a new gift or steal the already opened present.  You can imagine that the "stealing" can get pretty crazy sometimes.  The most desirable gifts in this family tend to be the food gift cards.  Ha!  The kids usually have  a little gift to open from one of their great-aunts.  We all give Grandpa a gift as well.  This year we added some extra craziness to the game by each person having to sing a line from the 12 days of Christmas.  Of course, since there were almost 30 of us, we added some extra lines.  It got crazy as each person had to remember their line to sing each time.  Kudos to cousin Adam for the idea!

Grandma enjoys cuddling her newest grand baby, Grady. 

Evan enjoying some yummy Christmas treats for lunch. 

Brody loves his little truck from Aunt Dava. 

Baby Grady gets a present too. 

Brody and the kids enjoying their gifts. 

Aunt Dava and Great-Grandpa. 

Aunt Naomi, Uncle Sam, and cousin Grady

Silly Daddy!

Cousin Kenny with his little men, Jacob and Robert. 

The boys got LED headlamps so they can blind us all. 

The kids enjoyed playing together while the adults had their fun. 

Great-Grandpa with 10 of his 13 great-grandchildren (brothers Brody and Evan, Baby Grady, siblings Mason and Lilly, siblings Elena, Eva and Emilia, and brothers Robert and Jacob).  

Yes, it was a little difficult to get 10 kids under 6 to cooperate. 

Brody enjoying opening more presents from Grandma and Aunt Naomi. 

Another truck!  

And some more Lego Duplos for his collection. 

And some new clothes. 

Evan's turn to open presents. 

Evan with his favorite gift of all.  He's been wanting this game for his Wii for a long time. 

Grandma got some new clothes. 

Aunt Naomi shows off one of Grady's gifts, a children's Bible from one of his Great-Aunt's.  We got him a whole box of goodies (clothes, booties, socks, board books, and toys).