Christmas continued...

Ok, I'm going to finish writing about all the Christmas hoopla today that way I can move on to the trip to NYC. Christmas with my mom's family is almost always interesting. My mom has 3 sisters and 1 brother and along with them come their spouses and children. One aunt was missing this year along with her husband and kids, but other than that, it was the regular crowd. My aunt Beth does have a new boyfriend, so he was the only new face. Everyone gathered at my parent's house for lunch on Christmas eve. The plan was to eat lunch, open presents, chit chat, then go to the Communion service at a local church. Before we opened presents, my grandmother read the Christmas story just as she does every year. My cousin Brendan, 5 yrs. old, asked her where the Easter eggs were. We had to explain to him the difference in the 2 holidays and I think he walked away more confused than ever. Anyhow, I love my grandmother. Over the years I've really seen how God uses her and she is really an example of godly love. After hearing Luke 2 read beautifully by my grandmother, the kids were ready to tear into their presents. Brendan being the youngest there took it upon himself to go ahead and not wait on anyone, and just open his gifts. Eh, life goes on. I got gift certificates, which is what I asked for. I'd rather not make a list and have people search for things for me. At least not my extended family, because it would probably get mixed up and I'd end up with a Carmen CD or toe socks.(inside family joke-*insert laugh or confused look here*) After all the gift exchanging and opening, the kids jumped on the trampoline, we all had dessert, then had to get ready for the communion service. The service itself was great, however, Brendan was sitting in between Ine and I causing a big disturbance. He was loud and I know he was bothering people around us. We did our best to quiet him down, but he had a lot of questions about communion.
Here are a few pictures from Christmas with my mom's family:

Ine and Brendan-He calls her his girlfriend. It's sweet, except Brendan doesn't even talk to me now. Yeah, just forget the cousin who has changed your diapers for the new girl.

Cory and Molly-Yeah, when they were little they kissed to see what it was like. They will always be the 'kissing cousins', even if they were only 5 when it happened.

Anyway, after that, my family went home and we all opened one gift. It had been a long day so we went to bed pretty early. Christmas morning was typical for us, except we had one addition, Ine. She had never experienced an "American" Christmas so it was fun for her. Also, my mom tends to spoil us so she wasn't used to getting so many gifts at Christmas. We all got more than we could have needed. My mom made pancakes for breakfast and we all just bummed around most of the morning.
Yes, I have some Christmas morning pictures too.

Cory on Christmas morning (sorry about it being so small-I was trying something new. I don't like it.)

Mom on Christmas morning--I'm sure she'll LOVE that I put this picture up of her in her robe.

Daddy on Christmas morning

Darling Lindsey on Christmas morning

Ine on Christmas morning

Me on Christmas morning wearing Cory's pants that are way too big, but very comfortable.

O Christmas tree

That afternoon we went to the movies, a tradition we started a few years back. We saw 'Meet the Fockers'-no, not a Christmas movie and I would not suggest watching this movie with your parents. Later that day my friend Jessica came over too and the 3 of us (jess, chelle, and I) opened gifts and we played Trivial Pursuit 90's edition against my sister, brother, and Ine. Of course we kicked their butts-oh yeah. Ok, this post is getting mighty long and un-fun because there are no pictures. Maybe I'll add some later, but for now I'll just say we had 2 more families to have Christmas with: The Runnels and the Peters. The Runnels are a couple my parents spend a lot of time with and go on a cruise with every year. We had fun playing with their huge dogs though.


The have 6 of these dogs. I'm pretty sure they could bite my head off if they were mean, but they're the sweetest dogs.

The Peters have been in my life since I was born so it's always fun to be with them. We got to play Trivial Pursuit again but my team lost-and yes, I'm bad loser. I rebounded though when we played later. I teamed up with Kevin and we beat the pants off Lindsey and Ine...oh yes, we rule. This post has exceeded what I imagined, so I'm going to go for now, but I promise I'll add some pictures tomorrow since I have to work anyway...on a Saturday. No, I'm not happy about it either.