Thursday, December 30, 2010

Holiday Cheer, Family Love, and Joyful Friends are forever Memories...

Thanksgiving and Christmas are two of our favorite holidays. We get to take a break from work, see family, and have our annual friends Holiday party. There is nothing better than being surrounded with family and friends for the holidays enjoying each other's company, reminiscing about our past, and during all this making new memories we will all never forget. This year was no different… 
We started Thanksgiving with two big family dinners. Our first dinner was on Thursday where Jason and mother-in-law, Debbie cooked an awesome turkey dinner. We heard a dear friend of ours was the only person from his family in town, so of course we jumped on the opportunity to invite him to our house. By the end of the night, our first dinner included; Jason, Debbie, my Dad, Wendy, Tad, and me! We had a wonderful time, by the end of the night we had an unbelievable dinner, one less wine bottle, ok maybe two, and sore tummy muscles from laughing! A few days later, we went to my Father’s house for his turn on cooking dinner for everyone. This time, we had a bigger bunch; Dad, Wendy, Jason, myself, Erin, Mark, and my two adorable nephews – Benny and Calvin! We had a great time playing; laughing at the faces Calvin made in his sleep, and of course enjoyed visiting with family.

With Thanksgiving over, we head into the Christmas season head on! We start off with our Friends Holiday party the first weekend of December. It was fantastic. We had all our closest friends and their loved ones over to celebrate. Everyone brings something to drink and a side of munchies for everyone to enjoy. To kick off the celebration of presents we always do a white elephant gift exchange. This year was much mellower than they have been in the past, due to three sneaky people bringing gifts they really wanted. Can you guess who all went home with their gifts? I’ll secretly help you…Amy, Michelle, and Adam! ;p )

Next, I was able to get some time with my little Sister for a couple days. I left work early on the Monday before Christmas to drive down and get her. Then on Tuesday night we had a relaxing time with Dad and Wendy celebrating and opening gifts. Jason and I thought we did pretty well guessing on what she would want for Christmas…and you know what, we hit it head on! The best gift was a wedding album I made for her. I had agreed to make her a book if she came up before the holidays; unfortunately we both got busy with school and work and didn’t make the time. In turn, I secretly made the book for her. She loved it!!

Thursday came quick and our driving adventures started! We drove down to McCleary, WA to celebrate with one of Jason’s Grandmother’s home. There was a big turn out with his Grandmother Rosalie, his father Carl, his two Uncles, Kerry and Kevin, cousins Emma (6) and Chance (3 or 4…I think), and later in the evening Kerry’s girlfriend Tracey was able to join us. It was a blast, playing with the kids, visiting with family, and the long drive from our home to theirs. 

Friday, we made the long drive back to the Olympia area to celebrate with Grandma Bonnie and her side of Jason’s family. To celebrate, Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dave made a wonderful dinner for everyone to enjoy and welcomed all of us into their home. Jason and I showed up shortly after his father and were able to enjoy catching up with Dave, Cathy, Carl, and cousin Nicky. It was wonderful. A couple hours later, Grandma Bonnie, Aunt Ginger, and cousins, Annie, Tasha, Calieb, Tommy, Thomas, Penny, Alex, and Aiden all showed up. As you can count, we had one full house. Watching the three youngest, Calieb and the twins Alex and Aiden all play and run around was amazing. They all are growing up so fast. 

After dinner, Jason and I drove back to our house to get Momma Debbie and then headed over to my Dad’s house for our annual Crab feast!! Waiting for us there was a football team of people! We had Dad, Wendy, Aunt Stacy, Tim, Uncle Barry, Annie, Erin, Ben (almost 2), Baby Calvin (3 months), cousins Alex and Darcy, and the newlyweds Derek and Chrisie. Now include the three of us, Jason, Momma Debbie, and me! Everyone had finished eating by the time we got there, however we dug in and enjoyed every bite. Great dinner Dad!! We sat around chatting and then changed gears to open gifts. Poor Benny he was so tired and started to get grumpy…so the best way to fix it. Have Grandpa Mark grab the biggest present under the tree for him and start opening it. Oh my gosh – you have never seen the happiest little boy opening his awesome gifts from Santa and family. The little oohs and awws made it completely worth it.

Christmas day started off quiet, Momma Debbie, Jason and I all slowly rolled out of bed to get up and start making Christmas dinner. Dad, Wendy, Erin, Mark, Benny, Calvin and Tadders were all heading to our house to celebrate! To close out this very long post, we had a wonderful Holiday season and are super excited to see all our friends to bring in 2011. Here we come!!

1 comment:

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