The first day I spent a majority of the morning wrapping presents since I had to mail most of ours and couldn't wrap ahead of time. Thankfully I had a helper :)
That afternoon my sister and her family arrived! Popcorn was a big hit with these girls.
Mom was so excited for the pyramid picture she had actually drawn out ideas of ways to do it. I think it turned out pretty good!
It's getting tougher to get a picture of everyone together, so we have to take advantage when we can.
That night mom and the girls got to work prepping some homemade pizzas, our Christmas eve tradition.
After pizza, Katie finished prepping her delicious homemade cinnamon rolls for the next morning.
A night in our family wouldn't be complete without a game before bed.
The next morning we celebrated Christmas! We have spent so many Christmas's in this room, and our family has certainly grown. It was such a fun, cozy, wonderful morning as usual.
Later that afternoon my Aunt Holly, Uncle Mike, and the General came to visit. Ben and Rosie warmed up to them quickly.
Mom and Dave prepared a wonderful Christmas dinner of steak and popovers among many other things.
The perfect end to the day - playing the new games Eric got us for Christmas, also a favorite tradition of ours.
Katie and I got a chance to go through some things at my mom's house before she moves - after 23 years there is a lot to sort through!
I found some old schoolwork that showed apparently nothing has changed since I was 6 years old ;)
One night mom and Dave babysat all the kids and got them ready for bed while all the siblings got to go out to dinner with dad.
We went to the same place I used to work 12 years ago! Not much has changed inside, although the name has changed a few times.
Uncle Benny enjoyed some snuggles from little Ben, our only nephew among 5 nieces!
We got to go see mom and Dave's new house - it is beautiful!
And there is more than enough room for all of us to come visit :)
We spent lots of time loving on these kids while we had the chance.
Grandma had lots of help in the kitchen this week.
And of course there were more games.
One morning we even woke up to some snow on the ground! I was thrilled, I had been hoping for a little snow this year since I know we won't have any in CA.
We had a nice breakfast and a lazy morning before Eric and Katie had to start packing up.
We got a few last pictures in front of the house I spent almost my entire life in.
This house was good to us!
The next day was New Years Eve. It was nice to have a quiet day after the craziness of the holidays. We sat around watching football and eating lots of good food - the perfect day!
We had no big plans since we had an early, early flight the next day. We enjoyed a nice fire with my mom and Dave and we all went to bed before midnight. Last year, Eric fell asleep at 9:30 on New Years Eve, so we probably wouldn't be doing much different if we were at our house.
We headed to the airport around 4 in the morning on New Years day to head back home. We had such a wonderful time surrounded by so much family. We are so thankful for this holiday bringing people together, focusing on what this time of year is all about, and having full hearts closing out the year. We can't wait to do it again next year!
What a great post Lauren!
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