Celebrating with Nana & O

Last Sunday we celebrated Christmas with my family. This is a change of tradition, due my parents & sister's family going skiing over Christmas. We enjoyed a fun night together - any time with them is fun ... I've definitely realized that my 'happy place' is seeing all the family together. The kids always have fun and there is usually a lot of laughs to be had! Sunday was no different. We enjoyed the 7 grandkids putting on the Nativity. This was totally self-produced. No adults helped out, except to put possible props in the basement. Oh - and Nana did make up slips with the parts written on them so that the kids could draw one out of the pot. I think what most impressed me was that even Jesse, at 15, was more than happy to do this. No rolled eyes, no attitude. He headed up the crew and did a fabulous job!

After the play, we enjoyed some yummy bbq, a family favorite that we usually enjoy over Thanksgiving, but didn't this year. Easy and delish! We then had to do our tradition of giving a gift to Jesus for the year. Each one had to write what their gift was on an index card and put it in Jesus's stocking. Nana gives these back to us at Easter as a reminder. Love that the kids are now getting into this too.

After that, the madness of opening gifts began. Everyone got a Life Is Good shirt in their stocking - kids and adults alike. Mom wants these to be the attire in our beach picture this summer ... if you aren't familiar with this brand, check it out. Fun stuff! Mom picked each shirt according to the personality of the person - Jacob got one with PB & J on it, Blaine got one with a bicycle, Jarrett one with a baseball. Bowdie's has a motorcycle on it (paying homage to his new love of dirtbikes) and then mine had running shoes. LOVE them!

The big gift of the year was a new tent. Since Jarrett's bday campout, we've been wanting to get one for the family. We also got several other camping items to go with the tent. So fun and practical ... I love gifts that encourage family time! Looking forward to a great year ahead ... so blessed!

Make a Smilebox slideshow