Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration at Eric's parents this year.  With a growing family, both in number and inches, it is always a full house, but that is part of the charm.  We fit ten adults and 14 children in the four bedroom house this year.  We were missing our nephew Nate who had basketball commitments back at college.  We did get to see him in the cities the weekend before, but we missed him for the traditional time at Grandma's and Grandpa's.  Here's a few pictures from those days:

I got these matching jammies for my girls.  Lydia got hers awhile ago, but I just gave Ruthie hers.  Too bad I underestimated her size and they are almost already too small!  But I love matching my girls' clothes (I have yet to find matching outfits for all four that don't cost a small fortune) and I just LOVE the sentiment of the saying on these (in case you can't see it, it says "Best Gift EVER!", because children really are the best gift ever!).

Grandma has a gift for stuffing stockings with unique things that delight the kids (and us!).  Lydia was thrilled to get this bouncy ball that lights up when it hits the floor.

Stocking un-stuffing is serious business, and lots of fun with a big cousin by you.

 

More gift opening...which must make Joshy crazy because I don't know why he looks like that.

 

Sweet Sophia.

 

This year Grandma made each grandchild a pillowcase.  She said it was a lot of fun choosing fabric for each of her 15 grandchildren.  I thought it was an awesome gift and love each one she made for my kids.  They liked them too, but had different ideas for what to use them.

I enjoy kids' creativity.

I enjoy my mother-in-law's creativity, too.  This year she made Mari a very special gift.  It was a cape, just like Laura from "The Little House On The Prairie" wore, only this is one made of purple (Mari's favorite color) velvet and trimmed with soft white fur.  To say Mari was ecstatic would be an understatement. 

She also received a long yearned-for gift of real cowboy boots, picked out in "the real West" (Montana) by her sweet great Aunt Linnie ("The one who kills rattlesnakes!").  She asked to wear them to bed (we said yes) and wears them continually in the house.  She told me she won't wear them outside until she goes to Cousin Christie's to ride a real horse, something we plan to do in the spring.  I was also delighted that though these were clear treasures to Mari, she eagerly shared them with her sisters.

 

 The rest of the time was spent enjoying each other through visiting and playing.  Grandpa always prepares a big ice rink (they live on a lake) and provides hockey sticks, pucks, and skates.  With so many cousins, there are usually a number of hockey games played.

 The girls had a great time skating, too.  Mari was especially tickled when her Uncle Ryan watched her perform an "ice show" while he played her the theme from "Ice Castles" on his phone.  I got to watch from inside while nursing Ruthie.  It was quite the show!  There is also a sliding hill and plenty of snow to eat, to the delight of my odd children.

Speaking of shows, Sophia, upon getting a pair of sparkly red "Dorothy" shoes from her grandma, insisted on putting on a dance show for the entire family.  I don't think she stopped laughing the entire show (neither did we, especially when she opened up by holding an imaginary microphone and saying loudly, "Uh, well, welcome to my dance show. I, uh, think you're,uh, really going to like it.").

Of course, there was lots of reading with Grandpa.

And since Eric was still recovering from surgery, he had to lay low and couldn't partake in the outside activities.  He did share some sweet moments with Ruthie, whom he could hold on his lap.

 

I think with every baby we've had since he's had that shirt we inevitably get a photo of them in this angle with the gun pointing at them.  I guess it's appropriate since the shirt says "Would it bother us more if they used gins?" referring to the atrocity of abortion.

 Anyway, Eric's surgery did make it tricky for us in regards to playing outside as I, also, was limited with needing to nurse or needing to be inside to care for the littlest ones as Eric wasn't able to do that.  We are thankful for the lots of help we received, especially Mark taking Lydia sliding and Megan taking care of Lydia and Ruthie inside.).

 

 

Megan wins my "Cousin of the Year" award for her patience and kindness in playing with my little girls.  Mari had been looking forward to painting fingernails with Megan.  I wasn't sure Megan would be up for it, but she enthusiastically participated, not even batting an eye when the purple polish covered more finger than nail.

Megan also wins my "Niece/Nephew I Wish To Spend More Time With" award.

We traditionally wait until our girls are five years old before letting them paint their nails, but we do make exceptions for special occassions.  Sophia was thrilled that we decided Christmas manicure time with her only girl cousin on this side of the family was special enough to warrant nail painting.

 

As always, a very undeserved and merry Christmas.