Christmas Recap #1

On December 23rd, my parents, Chris and I celebrated Christmas with my dad's family. We usually do something with them either before or after Christmas since we traditionally spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my mom's family when I was growing up. It was a nice chance to see everyone together. My dad's family all live on the other side of the Valley, which means an hour drive from our house. At least this time around my dad was down by our house so he picked up Chris and I had to work that day so I was already halfway.

Everyone was there to celebrate, which includes my 3 aunts, 1 uncle, grandmother and 7 cousins in addition to my parents and Chris. We used to all live here in the Valley, but now one of my aunts lives in Minnesota and I have one cousin going to school in Delaware and another in Northern Arizona. We've had our meal catered for the past few years and it's nice to not have to worry about cooking anything, we just have to show up! Actually, my mom usually brings dessert and this year she made a delicious Candied Apple Cheesecake. You can get the recipe here. I don't think there was any left by the end of the night! The rest of the meal included baked ham, green beans, roasted potatoes, salad and rolls. I was good and didn't overeat at all, but enjoyed a little bit of everything.

After dinner we opened some presents. It was a lot of fun to watch everyone open gifts. It takes a while since there are so many of us, and the cousins have to open according to age. I always find this funny since I'm the oldest, but at least I get to go first:) Here are a few photos from the evening. We didn't get back to our house until almost midnight, but it was worth it to be able to spend some time with the family.

My bag looks just like Peanut!

Chris playing Go Fish with my youngest cousin Karson.

All of the cousins...Me, Karson, Megan, Michelle, Melanie, Mark, Ryan and Austin.