a very merry Christmas

We hosted 36 people at our house on Christmas Eve. 18 adults and 18 children. It was crazy. And wonderful. We had Cafe Rio style salads and lots of yummy dessert. My favorite part was gathering in the living room and singing and playing lots of Christmas music.

After the extra crowd returned to their houses, we were lucky enough to still have Grandma and Grandpa Slade, Merrit and Matt, and the Linders with us. Our kids opened their Christmas pajamas. Then we read The Littlest Angel (a long-standing tradition) and the Christmas story in Luke 2.

Christmas morning was all kinds of fun. Santa set up his presents in the living room for the Daniels and in the family room for the Linders. After the traditional banana (which Nathan, of course, threw a fit about eating) and the lineup, the kids were able to partake in the new treasures. And then there was much going back and forth to share in the delights of the other room. When the presents were unwrapped, we had a breakfast feast (as per Daniel Family tradition) of breakfast casserole, pancakes, sausage, hot chocolate and juice.

  

I managed to remain in my pajamas at home but the Linders left for other family celebrations and Dave took the four oldest kids to Katie's house. My parents and Keri's family came later Christmas evening so the festivities seemed to go on and on. It was indeed a merry Christmas. 

Unfortunately, that was the end of the good times it seemed. The next day sickness settled into our house to stay for quite a while. There was some combination of fever, coughs, headache, and puking among one or several of us for the next week. It put a damper on the post-Christmas playtime. I wish we had been able to enjoy our visiting family more. I did manage to go see Les Miserables with my family on the 27th. Dave took all the kids but Anne to my aunt Laurie's that evening. I left the house for an hour to go furniture shopping with my mom one morning as well. Other than that we stayed home and did an obscene amount of screen time and I got to snuggle Anne and Ben. A lot.

happy mother's day

When I grow up I want to be a mother

And have a family

One little,

two little,

three little babies of my own.

Of all the jobs, for me I'll choose no other.

We'll have a family.

Four little,

five little,

six little babies in my home.

And I will love them all day long

And give them cookies and milk and yellow balloons.

And cuddle them when things go wrong

And read them stories and sing them pretty tunes.

When I grow up if I can be a mother,

How happy I will be.

One little, two little, three little babies I can love.

And you will see each sister and each brother

Who look a lot like me

Four little, five little, six little blessings from above.

blessed

To finish our wonderful week of family and fun, we blessed Anne at church on Sunday. She was blessed by Dave with Grandpa Slade, Grandpa Daniel, Uncle Colin, Uncle Jason, and Uncle Brett in the circle.

After church, we had lunch at our house. And took pictures. And sat around talking. Three of my favorite things.

Wow. It was such a busy week but so full of love and laughter. Just all kinds of good. Indeed, I am one lucky girl.

christmas!

The kids started waking up right about 8:00. We ushered them all onto our bedroom for the prerequisite banana (gotta eat something good before getting all the junk). Then the lineup.

Santa came! He left trains, and a Star Wars gun, and spy equipment, and clothes, and coat, and an MP3 player. In the letter the kids wrote on Christmas Eve, Slade was very specific about telling Santa not to misspell his name. Santa still doesn't spell names right. He's just too busy! Still, I think Santa did good this year. When Slade saw Nathan's gun (a video game that plugs into the TV), he said, "Nathan, you got what you always wanted!"
The kids got to check out their stockings and play with their Santa gifts while we waited for Keri and family to join us. Then the real fun began....

It took about three hours and there were many thrilled faces, lots of hugs, some happy dances, and even some tears. What a wonderful way to spend a morning.


When the pile of presents was depleted, we feasted on Scotch eggs, candy, cheese ball and crackers, and some pie too. Yum.

Dave and I took our children to the Daniels about two o'clock. I took a nice long nap while Dave and the kids played games and watched movies. We came back to a clean house (bless you Mom) and the kitchen filled with even more good food for another party that night. We hosted my two aunts and their families for a total of 40 people playing games, eating food, singing Christmas songs, talking and laughing.

A very wonderful and merry Christmas to all!

party of six

We went up the canyon this evening so we could attempt some family pictures. I forgot a piece for my tripod so I couldn't use that. I was attempting to set my camera up on a rock when another family walked by. Slade yelled out, "Hey, will you take a picture of us?". Yes, well, that would be easier!

I had to crop these a lot because the man stood way back. Consequently the quality isn't great. Of course, I also see all the things I wish had been fixed and let's just say probably would have been if I had been taking the picture. :P I am trying to decide if these are good enough to save us the $100 we will have to spend getting them taken on Tuesday night with another photographer. So do tell me your opinion!