Man, I gotta get back on the blogging train.
Here's a re-cap of some our family Christmas festivities!
In early December, we drove to Indiana for an extended Jackson family gathering. No pics, but good to enjoy some time with that side of the family.
The weekend before Christmas, the Strahm's settled in upon us. This is the first time we've hosted Christmas for my side of the family. We loved being able to have quite a few of them stay with us before and/or after the day of celebrating together. We feel so blessed and thankful to have a home that can fit so many of us!
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| The whole crew. |
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| Gma and Gpa with grandkids. |
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| 'Rents and their kids. |
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| Sang a few Christmas songs and listened to the telling of the Christmas story. |
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| 3rd Annual Grand Prix |
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| The Matriarch of the family handing the travelling trophy to Katie, this year's winner. |
Next, we celebrated with Adam's mom, Kevin, sister, and her cat-loving husband at our house. Lots of special meals and traditions. Christmas Eve ornaments and PJ's. Stockings. Brunch foods. And usually, some overall feelings of being spoiled.
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| So much joy! |
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| Christmas brunch. Yummm. |
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| Lego Party with Aunt Jaime. |
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| Always fun to look at things on Grandma's iPad. |
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The bunch of us.
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Then, the Willis brood came for the day to our house. I was explaining to Parker where everybody was from.....California, Kansas, South Carolina, Colorado, Florida, D.C......it's pretty impressive how far so many of the family members travel to be together. Aunt Leigh was snapping pictures and I never pulled my camera out of its bag. But there were a lot of us. And a lot of presents.
Then we celebrated with Adam's dad.
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| Poppy and Heath talkin' trains. |
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| The captivating world of Moppy and sharks. |
As you can see, as the events progress, my picture taking digresses. I need to work on that.
Not gonna lie. I LOVE being able to have people into our home. So thankful that we have been given such a great home to hold gatherings.
But also not gonna lie....it takes awhile for me to recover from hosting so much. I might have wandered around the house in a bathrobe for a day after everything was over. I even lost my voice for a few days in between it all. And I've been fighting some bug for a week or so now. Plus, I do get a little cranky at some points beforehand and say/yell things like, "I JUST ORGANIZED THE TOY CLOSET.....NO, YOU MAY NOT PLAY WITH ANY OF YOUR TOYS!" "STOP DRINKING THE MILK! I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO THE STORE AGAIN!". But my husband is super helpful and sends me on walks when I get too edgy. Plus, he does almost all of the dishes, sets up the tables/chairs, takes out the trash, etc. He's a good partner. And I think he likes me. ;)
Thankful to have some very special times during this Christmas season. Sharing special moments with loved ones. And aiming to remember why we even do all of this.
