Christmas family bliss

So I had every intention of keep up on this blog but life happened again and oops.... It has been to long.

We had a very nice Christmas at Ryan's brothers house. We went to Vegas on Wednesday and stayed with my parents. They made me the most unconventional Christmas dinner and I loved every bite. Shrimp cocktail, pita Christmas trees, salmon with cucumber relish! Yum. My mom even made me homemade sorbet. I could eat all of it and it was great. Then we opened presents. My mom labeled all of the presents with a phrase from "The Night Before Christmas" As she read the story and your phrase was read you could open one of your presents. The kids like it and it helped them to be excited when it was someone else's turn.

Before we left we opened a gift from the kids great-grandparents. 2 TV screens for the car. Yes! The car ride was so amazingly quiet. It was bliss.

We had a nice relaxing time with Ryan's family. There was not a lot planned and it was good to just visit. All of the siblings were there and I am so excited for our house to sell and to move back. Christmas eve was my favorite. We did the family gift exchange and then the kids acted out the nativity. Hope cried as she opened the present I gave her which made me feel so happy. I put a lot of time into her scrapbook. And it was good to see how much she loved it. My mother-in-law seemed to like her gift as well. The biggest bummer...I forgot my camera at my parents house so I have to wait for pictures from whom ever wants to send me some.

The day after Christmas we took A Huge family picture. That was interesting. There were 5 married couples, 12 grandkids, making for 14 adults and 18 children. Amazingly I think the pictures are going to be awesome. We all wore black shirts and jeans. It was taken at Escondio Lake and the view was gorgeous. I am hoping our individual family picture turns out good. They will cost at least $55 for an 8x10. Ouch!