Christmas 2016- 4.5

I did one post for the Saturday, daytime activities and now this one is for the Saturday evening activities...hence the 4.5 :) For dinner Saturday evening we had a taco bar. Just various tortillas, chips, tostadas with meat, cheese, lettuce, beans, rice etc. After dinner we did Christmas cookies. (I made the cookies earlier in the week- so this just entailed frosting and sprinkles...not sugar and flour all over my kitchen- lol.) We also had the cousin gift exchange and the Christmas Eve pajamas. Later we also had a couples dance on the porch, with music and Christmas lights- but I was too busy dancing with Ron and didn't get any pics. The song was "The Greatest Gift of All" by Lee Greenwood. (this was actually my favorite activity :) Here are some pics from the evening and the song. We did the cousin gifts one-at-a-time. The pajamas ...we passed out the gifts and opened all-at-once. I warned the girls, that my type two personality kicked in on the pajamas... I just couldn't do the crazy little kid footies for those bigger boys...so everyone got sweat pants and t shirts :) It was a great evening and great "cousin time".

Christmas 2016- 4

Everyone arrived by Friday evening , December 23. Earlier in the week I had prepared 4 pans of Lasagne for dinner, and had those in the freezer. Our first whole day together, Saturday, the 24th, was packed with activities. Family photo at 10:30, at a park in Kerrville. (The weather was not cooperating...it was raining.) Then we all went to the church for Owen's baptism, Luke's baby blessing, lunch, music practice, and cleaning the church. (Our church needs to be cleaned every Saturday. I decided since our family would be there using the building...out gift to the ward was for us to clean that day.) For lunch...I ordered Subway sandwiches, and brought paperware, chips, and cookies.

Christmas 2016- 3

Here is a bit of my Christmas decor...before, we got invaded- lol. 

I knew that I shouldn't put very much out, but I had two small trees down stairs and the large tree up stairs. The large tree was out right after Thanksgiving, but it wasn't until Dec. 23 that I actually got some lights on it. Then Alison and I decided that was all it needed...no ornaments ;)

With all of us in the house for Christmas, it was almost like the Christmas decor got lost somewhere, under bodies, and toys, and food :) I also included my one, cute idea, this year for Snoball Snowmen. 

Christmas 2016- 2

Ron must really love me...he hates doing Christmas lights...but we have lights on the house. I bought tons of lights last year after Christmas, when they were on sale. Our yard is not very cooperative with lights. No bushes, no larger trees to put them on...but we came up with something :)

Christmas 2016- 1

It's time to get started on my Christmas 2016 posts. This will take me a while and I will do in lots of parts. We knew beginning in July, that everyone would be at our house for Christmas. So..I was planning for 6 months. I thought through most things...like where everyone would sleep, where everyone would sit to eat etc. Even though I had prepared much...I was still not quite ready for the "whirlwind" of toys, kids, dishes, trash, laundry, etc that would descend upon us- lol.  We packed as much "fun" as we could into 6 days. (That was the total time that we were ALL here- everyone arrived by Dec. 23 and then they began leaving on Dec. 28. Some staying longer than others- all had to meet a schedule to be back home.) My first post here is not even our family Christmas at all...but it is our ward Christmas party, nativity story. That was my big project about Thanksgiving time and the first week of December. I could have had more things prepared...last summer...to avoid all of the last minute rush- lol. I will definitely be more prepared for next year- I am hoping that this will be an annual Christmas tradition for Primary. My "lamb" project started out to be just for the Sunbeams and then turned into Sunbeams and Nursery...so I ended up making 15 "lamb ears". My cardboard sheep, have been moving around with us since Bartlesville- I made a new camel, but I didn't get a new donkey done. I made a few new wisemen accessories. The program turned out okay, except we had 175 people there for dinner, so not much space to set up and kind of difficult to see from the "way back" :)