A Very Merry Christmas

This Christmas was a very special one, because all of my family came home for a week-long gathering!  Ryan's family of 6 six from California, Emily's family of three from California, Beth's family of four from Seattle, Rebecca and Kyhle from Indy, and our little family, all spent that week together at my parent's house in Greenwood.  21 people in one house made for a fun and crazy time!

Since we were going to be gone for Christmas, we pretended Christmas Eve morning was Christmas morning, and Santa visited our house.  It was so fun to see how excited Eli was, and watch him enjoy opening his stocking (and all of ours as well)!

Stockings ready and waiting for Santa's arrival!

The goods laid out before Mom & Dad went to bed.

Here's a video of Eli opening his stocking--

Eli's present from us was a gas pump to use with his new Cozy Coup car.

Eli spent the morning enjoying playing with his new gifts, and that afternoon we headed over to my parent's.  There was a flight delay, so Christmas Eve festivities started rather late, and our kids had to miss most of it.  (A little tricky when half of the group is coming from 3 hr. change in time zone.)  We ate a nice dinner, read the Nativity story, sang "Away in a Manger," watched the traditional "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and some opened one present.  : )

We woke up well before anyone else on Christmas morning, and Grammie and Grandpa still had to fill stockings!  Once they were ready for us, everyone lined up on the stairs and all came down at once.  There were of course lots of shrieks and squeals from all the kids as they opened their stockings.  After stockings we opened the rest of the presents.  My parents give to all the kids and grandkids, all the kids give to my parents, each couple has another couple, and each cousin gives to a cousin.  It's a good system.  

A video of Eli and Mommy opening stockings--

We ate a yummy traditional breakfast pizza, then our group headed to David's parents for the afternoon.

Clara wore the cutest Christmas outfit!  Didn't get a great picture of it, though.

Some cute videos from the day--

Video of Clara--

The Hayes family, minus his mom and one brother's family

We made it back to my parent's for a nice Christmas dinner and sang several Christmas carols around the piano.  We watched a few old home movies, one of which was from Christmas 1987, when I was about the same age as Clara.

The 26th we all headed to Columbus to play at a nice indoor playground and have lunch at a fun ice cream parlor.

Video of cousins climbing the huge playground--

Clara had fun, too!

The ice cream parlor had a large self-playing organ.  Each kid took a turn paying a quarter and the organ would play a fun Christmas song.  It was pretty fun to watch it play, and some of the kids danced along.

The morning of the 27th we had family photos taken at a nearby studio.  We were able to have pictures taken of each individual family, as well as our family as a whole.

Our aunt and uncle and Metheny cousins, along with their spouses, came for a visit on the 28th.  All of the cousins/spouses went out to a nice lunch at BJ's while the two sets of grandparents stayed home with all the kids!  It was nice to have a chance to see and visit with them all.

The adults stayed up way too late playing games every night (so hard to do being up through the night with a nursing baby!)  I think the favorite of the week was Telestrations.  A lot of laughs were had over that game!

My parents made a big effort to create fun things to do at their house, instead of going out to places.  Some uncles put together this rocketship that the cousins got to color and play in.

We immensely enjoyed our family talent show, where my parents put on the silliest skit and my brother dressed up and sang like MCHammer to "Have You Seen Her?".  (All videotaped, thank goodness.)  Ryan and my mom also put on a fun skit acting out How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Kids decorated gingerbread houses, played with a new tent/tunnel that was set up, and celebrated  Annie's birthday.

One of Eli's favorite events of the week was a special tea party that my mom hosted for the kids.  Older cousins Gwen and Zach were the servers, and the younger kids sat around the table drinking lemonade out of tiny Christmas mugs and eating treats on small plates from an old tea set.  Very cute.  : )  (I sadly don't have pictures/videos as my photographer wasn't around for it.)

Sunday morning was sad, as Emily's family had to leave.  :(  The week went by way too fast!  When we got home David said it felt like we were only there for two days.  It's true!  

The rest of us went to church together at my parent's ward.  Half of that group went to visit my grandma in Terre Haute, while the other half (all of us from Indiana), stayed for the rest of church.

Ryan's family left early Monday morning, and our family also started the cleaning and packing process to head back home.  We had such a terrific time!  All of the kids did so well and for the most part played really nicely together.  It was so special having everyone together at my parent's home.  Can't wait for the next get-together!