Christmas 2015

Since we had already had our Christmas at home, kids didn't wake us back at some obnoxious hour Christmas morning. Nice. 

I did manage to get up and help my mom in the kitchen.

Not really sure how much of a help I really was, but I tried.

My mom is a good cook, I know she must wonder where she went wrong with me and Jo.

Look, even my offspring was helping in the kitchen.

But mainly she just jumped around in excitement...

THERE WERE PRESENTS TO BE OPENED!

At eight years old she still gets really excited about everything.

While Pierce at 11 years old is changing.

Still excited? Absolutely. Holding it in more? Sadly, yes. And most of the time you would find him hanging with older crew wanting to converse with them.

 Then there is the resident two year old of the family. I tried my hardest to get pictures of him, but they all looked like this.

Finally I had success, but one nano second after this picture was taken he was off.

Lunch was served at 12:00, and at approximately 12:10 Hope was asking when we could open the gifts.

 I think we held her off until 1:00, which really was forever.

We gathered.

We waited.

Then we pounced.

Poor Paul woke up pretty sick that morning, but this Patriots jersey may have helped him perk up a little.

We try and adhere to the one person opens at a time rule.

Well at least some of us try.

 How cute are these two?

 We were rolling along in our Christmas, when we suddenly heard footsteps upstairs and a male voice.

I looked around the room doing a head count and was like, who dat?

Down the steps came Seth, one of Linda's boys. We don't see her boys that often so it was a really neat surprise. I think Dad was probably the most excited, I'm sure it felt a little like his sister had come back. Or something like that.

Jo had help coordinate the whole thing, and after we all hugged and talked a while Dad of course had to go set the camera up. Linda has been gone just over two years and seeing Seth made her spirit seem alive again.

The whole day went so fast, and before I knew it the last gift had been opened.

 Which you know when you're an adult at Christmas there is always some degree of relief when it's over. Now you can relax. You can eat, you can nap, or you can dive into deep conversations about John Wayne films.

And that's what we did the rest of the day.

We hung out.

And some even perked up enough to make fun of me.

I'm so thankful for my family.

 Like all families we have our quirks, but we love each other and I'm grateful for our time together.

Another Christmas to add to my memories.

Until next time....

Christmas Eve 2015

So after the Christmas here at home, we rolled up to Indiana where the honey flows. 

Time to prepare ourselves for the best day of the year...

Christmas Eve. 

Per the normal tradition I met Jami and the boys for breakfast Christmas Eve morning. We started this tradition five years ago, but this time opted for a rich people breakfast at Panera.

Once we heard enough conversation about body parts and such from little kids, we headed home.

The parents house is always beautiful at Christmas.

Unfortunately we couldn't light a fire in the fireplace this time around.

Seeing as it was a balmy 70 degrees!

So we just sat around in denial about the weather and ate.

Christmas Eve we opted for simple foods....

Sort of appetizer'ish.

Who doesn't love a good meatball.

Before we ate I threatened the kids with no gifts if they didn't stop and smile for me. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

After we ate our supper of meatballs and such, there was a lot of this....

The conversations can get interesting.

Oh and look at Jaclyn here, she was about to give birth in five days and you can't even tell from the back. As someone who got pregnant EVERYWHERE, I envy her.

But yeah, there are lots of conversations and lots of laughter.

And sometimes you might even catch young love.

Nathan has a girlfriend.

And it's pretty adorable.

But besides all the Christmas Eve celebrations, we also celebrated our Cody bear who turned 21!

I think it's pretty great our family still celebrates each birthday with importance. Whether you are one or twenty-one we will line up and watch you open up your gifts.

And then you will get a terrible rendition of Happy Birthday.

Because we are awesome like that.

But once the meal has come and gone

And each and every gift assembled...

And each child tucked away in bed

We wait. 

For the big day.....