The Best Christmas Ever!!

Now that it is almost the middle of January, I thought I'd better get on the ball and post about our Christmas this year. I've had a hard time recovering from the holidays....besides having a little baby, Addi got a nasty stomach virus the day after we got home, which she kindly passed on to me, making my New Year's totally awesome (as you can imagine). As I was recovering from that, I ended up with a mild case of mastitis, which mild or not, totally knocked me out making me have similar symptoms as the flu. I felt horrible for 2 days. I was able to get on an antibiotic that has helped me get back to normal...whatever that is.

We started out our Christmas trip heading for the Lake of the Ozarks one morning after Daniel finished a 24 hour shift. Not to worry, I had been up until 3am wrapping, packing, etc, before we left, so I was fully charged on 3 hours of sleep and Daniel had none. You'd think we had a death wish. Luckily, we made it safe and sound to Daniel's parents house where we spent 3 days. For some reason we always seem to have a hard time getting pictures taken at Daniel's parent's house, so I have no documentation. We had a very nice family dinner one night with Daniel's parents and 2 brothers and their families. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins, and we had a small gift exchange. Another night, Brenda and I took all the girls (Tamblyn, Alicia, Adelaide, and even Avery) to "The Princess and the Frog," which I thought was cute. The boys (Grandpa Tam, Nate, Max, Daniel and Tristan) all went to see "The Blind Side" (also an excellent movie....I had seen it about a week earlier with some girlfriends). I had brought my Christmas piano book on the trip, so spent some time twinkling the ivories at the house. Tam would walk by and give everyone a solo vocal concert performance every now and then which was quite entertaining. It was a very relaxing and peaceful visit.

Then, we were off to Kansas City to spend the rest of Christmas with my side of the family at my parent's house. It was a full house this year. Not only were all my siblings there, but also Opa and his wife, Germaine, my Aunt Ingrid (my dad's younger sister) and Uncle Rob, and their daughter Jill (grad student at OU). We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and after quickly unloading the car, Tristan and Daniel were off to play in the family football game. This was a highly anticipated event with plenty of "smack-talking" emails that circulated about a month previous. As a result of these emails, the girls got involved and got to play. I think the teams were the Young vs. the Old. The "Young" being Tristan, Jill, Mitch, and Wes. And the "Old" being Seth, Cari, Daniel, and Martin. I never got a clear answer on who won, but I think everyone had a good time.

On Christmas Eve, Aunt Ingrid and Uncle Rob arrived. We had a delicious family dinner followed by a few word games that Martin and Mari brought and then the family Nativity (cutest performance ever!!!) and the singing of Christmas carols. It was so fun to have SO many voices as we sang. Then we had a blind root beer tasting. This is a tradition that Uncle Rob and Aunt Ingrid do with their family. Apparently we took it to the next level by having it be a blind tasting and by have 22 different brands. I felt SO sick afterwards. The original rules were that the root beer had to come in a glass bottle. Then, the boys went to the grocery store and picked up a few 2 liter generic brands just to put another loop in the experience. And would you know that "Always Save" was the winner??? A generic brand from Price Chopper. How lame is that??? A close second was Dad's root beer. With all that expensive root beer, and Always Save was the winner.......so don't waste your money on expensive root beer!!! With all these activities, Santa Claus had to come pretty late!!

Christmas morning was wonderful. We had a very White Christmas...lots and lots of snow! It was beautiful. But poor Martin and Mari and Uncle Rob and Aunt Ingrid who had to drive over from Martin's house...they got stuck a couple of times, but they made it safely...how brave they were! I was so grateful they made it...it would not have been the same without them.

I love to see the looks on my kids faces when they open gifts and find exactly what they wanted, or even something better!! Alicia's favorite gifts were her black Miley Cyrus fringe boots and 12 mp camera with a 3 inch lcd screen (Santa found a sweet deal on Black Friday for that one). Tristan loved his Under Armour (he's totally into the name brand stuff these days...teenagers....) sweatshirt and backpack and the soccer movie "Goal: The Dream Begins". Adelaide loved her Polly Pocket Cruise Ship, and her Littlest Pet Shop rabbit (which she bought for herself and wrapped to put under the tree). After gifts (which took a while since we open one at a time, and there was A LOT of people), we had a big breakfast. The rest of the day was spent playing with our gifts and playing games.

Boxing Day was another fun day of taking it easy. We took family pictures in the morning. There was a group that went to go see the movie, "Invictus" in the afternoon, and I made sure to get my fill of Mr. Goodcents (my favorite sub shop...which of course we don't have in Nashville). Daniel was supposed to go see his grandparents and other extended family in Chanute, Kansas (2 hours south), but decided it wasn't a good idea with a bunch of road closings on the journey due to the snow. He was pretty bummed since this same thing happened to him 2 years ago when he tried to go down. It's been a long while since he made it to the farm. Later in the afternoon/evening a group of the adults and the kids went out to play in the snow. I was surprised at how long Addi lasted!

On Sunday morning it was time to pack up and go home, and I just wasn't quite ready to do that. I don't know when the next time will be that my whole family will be together for Christmas, and I just wasn't ready to let go. It was a bit emotional for me to say good-bye. Quite literally, the Best Christmas Ever!!!!

The WHOLE group...23 people and 3 dogs (Footer and Flora not pictured). Note the stool Seth is standing on, Avery's binkie on the floor, as well as Kate's shoe....this is what it is like taking a picture with that many people!!

Ahhh...a nice photo of the Ralph Guenther family.

Hmmm...not so nice. I will say that this was the best family photo session we've ever had...no one got in an arguement.....

Our "better side." Daniel eventually said, "Ok, enough with the better side already." To which Cari replied, "Hey, I work hard for my better side!"

"Please sir, do you have any room in the inn?" Addi as Mary, Ryan as Joseph, and Tristan as the Inn keeper. This little scene brought me to tears...it was so sweet. My mom is behind Ryan prompting him on his lines.

Ryan was a very attentive Joseph. Martin had told him to stay right by Avery (who was playing baby Jesus), and so he did...even after the Nativity was over. As you can see, Avery didn't mind...she just kept smiling at him!

The entire cast. Martin, Mitch and Wes were Wise Men (or wise guys as I like to call them). Alicia, Lily, and Kate were angels (Lily was very good at holding the star up high). Seth and Luke were Shepherds (what's up with Seth's glasses??). Tristan was the Inn Keeper, Avery was baby Jesus, Addi was Mary, and Ryan was Joseph.

Have you ever seen so many different kinds of root beer??? We gathered them from all over the country! Aunt Ingrid poured each root beer into little plastic cups with our name on it, while Germaine brought out all the cups on a tray, then gathered them back up for the next round. Great tradition!! Thanks Ingrid and Rob!!!

Uncle Rob, Wes, Seth, Daniel, and Jill having another taste of the winner...Always Save!!

Christmas Morning....Wes went out to shovel parking spots for Martin and Uncle Rob. They got stuck coming into the neighborhood on the unpacked snow, so we had to send out a rescue crew! Again...so grateful they made it!!

This is what it looked like opening presents...it could have been mass chaos, but like everything else that weekend, was done with order and organization. My mom did such a good job keeping the chaos at bay.

Addi with her Polly Pocket Cruise Ship....luckily I was able to hold off opening it until we got back to Nashville. Thankfully she was too distracted to mind!

Have you ever seen more obnoxious boots!! But she LOVES them and they look good on her! Her camera is just over her right shoulder sitting on the coffee table.

Totally hooked up!!!

Christmas breakfast. This is what every meal looked like. This table in front that Tristan is sitting at would be set up and taken down before and after every meal so that the kids had a space to play in. Again, my mom did a great job at planning for keeping the chaos at a minimum.

Daniel helping the kids dig a snow fort in a snowdrift. I don't think it worked out too well since the snow wasn't sticky at all. Note the scarf around Addi's jacket...her zipper broke, so this is what we came up with to keep it closed.

A little snow tackle football. The boys all came in VERY wet. At one point I looked out and Wes and Daniel had decided to wrestle in the snow....it looked like they both gave each other their fair share...not sure who won that match, either.

Of course Martin stayed the driest in his full body snow suit. He'd go out and shovel snow and play and such, come in, strip off his snow suit, and be completely dry and comfy....lucky duck!

Games...lots of them...day and night!

Jill, Opa, Daniel and Uncle Rob playing a hand of Rook at one of the three tables we had going during a tournament. The losers would switch tables. So fun!

You might have noticed Wes wearing this hid-ee-ordorous sweater in a few of the photos. Jill won it from one of the word games Martin and Mari brought, took a photo of it with her OU hat on, then promptly handed it over to Wes, who was obviously THRILLED. He wore it the rest of the weekend and later found that it also played the KU fight song....

Just a sweet photo of Adelaide with her Uncle Mitch. I love my family so much and am so grateful for all the sacrifices everyone made to be together this time. And having the extra 5 people (Opa, Germaine, Ingrid, Rob, and Jill) made it even better! Our visit with Daniel's family was so good as well....I really couldn't have asked for anything better! And I'm so so so so grateful we made the trip!!!