Better late than never...

Ok, I wrote this ages ago and was trying to decide which pictures to put with it. I forgot I hadn't actually posted it yet. So, better late than never.

This year my family was getting together for the first time in a very long time for Christmas. The last time we were all together was about 4 years ago and it still wasn't everyone. I can't even remember the last time we were all together. But this year my parents were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve and we thought it was high time we all got together.

My grandma, parents and all of my siblings and their children.

This came at no small sacrifice for most of us. While my parents and youngest two siblings live in Washington, they still had to drive down to Oregon to meet the rest of us. My brother and his wife flew in from Georgia where they just moved this summer. I was so glad they were able to make it. My sister Lisa and her family live in Oregon right near my Grandma and my Aunt & Uncle and a few of their children and their families. My sister and I drove up from Utah. However, about a week and a half before we left, my car had some mechanical difficulties which rendered it un-driveable on such a long trip. Timing couldn't be worse as it was Christmas, right before a big trip and very expensive to fix. We had pretty much decided we wouldn't be able to go. In the end, we decided that due to the high cost of fixing the car (new engine amongst other things) we might be better off just buying another used vehicle. Since we would need a car one way or another we decided to bite the bullet and buy it before our trip. It was a pretty stressful week trying to figure out what to do and then car shopping and hoping we weren't making a big mistake, finishing up christmas shopping, getting ready to go, finishing up tons of stuff for my primary calling to get ready for the new year, celebrating our own anniversary, planning Lauren's class party and finding a sitter for our dog (A shout out here to Latu who is currently our favorite niece these days. Man, we owe her big time. She stayed at our house and dog-sat for 12 days!) We did find a new van, just like my old one only a few years newer and white. It has a built-in DVD player which saved our bacon this trip. Anyway, we made it on the road Wednesday the 23rd and headed for Oregon.

I have many fond memories of spending Christmas Eve and my Grandma's house and was looking forward to visiting with all the extended family and sharing it with my own family to celebrate my parents anniversary. It was a fun day and did not disappoint. We had my whole family there (except my brother Doug and his wife who flew in later that night), Mom & Dad, 5 siblings and all their families, my grandma, my Aunt & Uncle (my dad's brother) and my cousins Angie, Serena & John and their families.

We started off the evening by having all the great-grandchildren put on the nativity while my cousin John read from the Bible. The kids, all 15 of them, each had a part and did so good. They were all well-behaved and sat quietly while John read the story. It was very cute.

The great-grandkids acting out the Nativity.

Next we ate and then had all the great-grandkids make gingerbread houses.

McKenna and her masterpiece.

Afterwards we had a white elephant gift exchange that is always a lot of fun. After all the festivities we had a special visit from Santa himself which thrilled all the kids. It was a fun day and we ate a ton of food and enjoyed all the company. We didn't monitor the kids very much and McKenna if left unchecked will eat her weight in candy. Which she did, and threw up three times during the night. Not fun. Puking aside it was a wonderful Christmas Eve and was so fun to spend it with everyone.

My cute Grandma on Santa's lap.

Oops, Aunt Angela was caught kissing Santa Claus.