Celebrating

Darren's family always celebrates Christmas ahead of time so that everyone can be there. It's fabulous! So, December 17th was our first big celebration. We've grown so much! Check out those eight grandkids.
The "big kids" seemed to split less by age & more by gender this year. Rebecca had a fabulous time playing ponies & chatting with Alaina.
Jackson is SO cute! Besides baby snuggling for the last few years we have all brought food to donate to the local food pantry. The kids carry it up to Jesus in the nativity scene. Grandpa delivers it the next day.

Teresa was absolutely in love with Abigail. She spent a good chunk of the night just loving on her.

I don't know if there was anything specific, but I just left feeling like this was the best Christmas celebration we ever had there. Everyone was happy, the kids were well-behaved, food was delicious (though we lamented that we did "not do duck this year" ;P ), & it was just a fun time. Andrew was a big fan of Logan.

There's that grin!

And another of Logan with his daddy, Brad.

This year we spiced up our normal gift exchange with a gift swap. (Kind of the white elephant idea but with nice gifts instead of, well, white elephants. ;] ) It involved several giftcards, some alcohol, & a few other sundries. Darren came away with two movies & I with a giftcard & CD. Very fun time. I hope we do it again next year!

Thank you for a marvelous Christmas celebration. Love you all!