Home for the HALL idays

Sunday night was our annual Christmas party at Grandma's. I have to say that this year topped all the rest so far. We started out with a smorgess board of the most delicious goodies. Then Santa stopped by to give everyone a candycane and make sure that he had his list correct.

(My niece and nephew were concerned that Santa would stop by their house in Japan and not realize that they were at Grandma's house this year.)

Then we all got to open our presents from Grandma and Pa. We get three gifts every year. One for each of the gifts for baby jesus. (Gold, frankincense and myrrh) They were awesome gifts too. We all got matching shirts this year with a number that represented the order that we came into the family.

And this year, we started a new thing that I was excited about. Instead of exchanging gifts with the siblings and cousins, we decided to exchange memories. We all wrapped something from around the house that reminded us of a good memory. As each present was openned, we got to hear the stories again and reminisce about old times and fill the in-laws with dirt on the others. It lasted for a few hours, but it was so fun to remember those silly things.

We finally layed down to sleep at 1:30 in the morning. There was a total of 10 sleeping grandkids in the house and amazingly enough. They all slept in till at least 8 am.

It was so much fun to have the whole family here except Ryan who is serving a mission in Argentina. We can't wait to talk to him on Christmas day.