The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
My Mom has two Christmas trees that she sets up and both were surrounded with presents. That's bound to happen when there are gifts for 18 people!
We had several rounds of gift-opening that day. We knew that everyone would eventually get to Mom and Dad's house, but we knew that it wouldn't be at the same time. So we started our morning and waited for the others to arrive.
Grandpa Thibault, Maren, Paul, Glenn and I were sleeping at my parents' house, so we had the first round of opening gifts. We began the morning with orange cinnamon rolls--of course--and reading the Christmas story found in the scriptures. Paul's father made up a program that uses all the Christmas hymns mixed in with the verses. It was nice to read it all together and to have Mom play the piano. It was a good start to a great day!
Paul, Glenn, Maren, Grandpa Thibault, Mom, Dad and I Opening Gifts
Glenn had asked for one thing for Christmas: Transformers--just like his 'cousin and friend' Jasper has. He was so excited to see them when he opened them!
We first opened gifts in the front room. I don't think Dad purposefully put the calendar in front of his face for the picture, but it was the result. :D And I didn't get a picture of it, but Mom and Dad got a new griddle! Looks like we're making pancakes soon...
Doesn't Grandpa look like a little German boy? We got him that hat, but it was too big and he exchanged it for some much-needed slippers.
Then we moved on to the living room. Glenn found his stocking and dumped out the contents.
Glenn really enjoyed opening his gifts. He was so surprised to see that there was even a present for Sunny!! A doggie mousepad!
We got some fun foam-disk shooters by our stockings. Let the foam war begin!
Mom had made some really cool origami money. Maren and Paul both got stars. The last picture shows some of the other shapes she made.
Kirsta, Morian, Devin and Mackenzie Opening Gifts
Kirsta and her family were the first to arrive. We had our second round of gift-opening. They got games and toys and books--much like the gifts we got.
I made the front of this jean quilt for their family. I had the idea to make one for all my siblings but sadly I didn't have the idea soon enough in the year to get them completed. I did however get 3 of the fronts done--so jeans cut and sewn together. So maybe by next Christmas they will actually get the completed blanket. :D
Micah, Ethan, Lena, Jasper and Freya Opening Gifts
Then Micah, Ethan, Lena and their kids arrived. So on to round 3! It was fun having these different rounds of opening gifts because we were able to watch them specifically and it spread out the cheer and joy all day.
Lena is showing off one of the beautiful cards that Mom made.
Micah was there too--and got a back-scratcher. Glenn liked that.
Glenn and Jasper were having fun with the Transformers.
Ethan got Dad some Jelly Belly jelly beans. Yum!
And Mom got a HUGE box of Russell Stover chocolate!
Sirie and Spencer Opening Gifts
The last to open their gifts were Sirie and Spencer. It's always fun when they bring their dogs. The girls, Lily and Twix, were having fun watching the unwrapping with Micah. (We will probably never own dogs, but we like to enjoy others' dogs when we can.)
Christmas Dinner
Christmas dinner was made with the usual: turkey, mashed potatoes, apple-yam casserole, rolls, and vegetables. It was a nice spread of good food. Neither Paul nor Glenn ate much because they weren't feeling very well. Later when we were eating some dessert, Glenn felt better and had some ice cream. Dessert without dinner? It was Christmas after all!
Family Photo Op
I figured that since we were all there for Christmas that we should use this time to take pictures together. It's been awhile since that has happened and who knows when that will happen again. So before people started leaving for the night, we took some pictures.
We were making fun of Sirie's dogs in this one--we were trying to replicate the way Twix's teeth poke out and it was funny to us. I don't think the front row knew what we were doing...
Now with our kids...minus Freya. She was getting really tired and cranky. We were able to get her in a couple pictures though...
The girls
The guys
And I didn't want to miss this opportunity to take a 4-generation picture with my Grandpa Thibault!
We had a fun day and I was sad to see it come to an end. Sirie, Maren, Grandpa Thibault all spent the night so we still had some fun together after everyone else left. We ended the night with watching The Polar Express.
2 comments:
Good times for sure!
I'm glad we were able to at least end the day all together as a huge family! And thanks for thinking of taking the group pictures. I can't even think of when we did that last!
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