My sister Lisa drove down for Christmas at my parents house, and Sharon and Gregg live nearby so they came down for Christmas Eve. It was nice to see so much family for the holidays this year.
We played Monopoly, Skipbo, and some other games while hanging out during the day. The best part about holidays with the family is seeing all the nieces and nephews who keep growing like weeds while we are apart. Amy is learning to drive now, which is so weird for me and Chris – we used to babysit her all the time along with her sister Amanda when they were two years old. Where does the time go?
Olivia, Marion, and Oliver played trains together for quite awhile. That was probably the best train sharing I have ever seen from Oliver!
Chris and Jack hung out with their tablets..
After dinner we all went upstairs to read the Christmas story from the Bible.
Marion and Drakey decided to go exploring instead… little mischief makers!
James with cousin Amy.
My kids love their cousins. They love my parents house. They love holidays. So this picture just makes me smile because it shows Oliver radiating enthusiasm about the whole evening!
Here are the siblings that came. My mom makes everyone pose for family pictures with every possible combination of people. She had us do a sisters picture, and then I told Gregg to hop in because it would be silly to do a picture of Gregg by himself! If you have seen the movie “White Christmas”, I began singing the song “Sisters” after Gregg joined us – which is why we all have goofy laughing smiles. So here are the siblings who were at the Chapman family Christmas Eve party this year: Sharon, Lisa, Me, Gregg
Gregg made Elora this pretty snowflake. She played with the snowflake and Drakey. I love seeing all the little cousins play together.
James snuggling up with Uncle Gregg.
Oliver was so excited about James first Christmas present that he got to open. James was not so excited, I think all the people overwhelmed him a little bit.
Chris and I had a great time shopping at Harbor Freight (a tool store) and bought some gag gifts for everyone. Jack really enjoyed his.
We decided it would be really fun and responsible to equip the older kids with a way to make fire. Cameron was pretty excited.
Chris took all the kids outside to show them how to work their fire starters after we finished opening presents. Amanda and Amy were also very excited to learn how to light fires.
Marion loved her new puzzle she got from Aunty Sharon.
She also loved my gifts from Aunty Sharon and confiscated them. Sharon and I both picked out scarves to give each other for Christmas.
Here is James sporting his new hat!
Olivia decided she had had enough fun for one evening and went to find her blankie.
Oliver got a toy helicopter and LOVES it.
James getting to know Aunty Vy.
That is a whole lot of Christmas stockings…
And after the kids were in bed, the grown ups pulled out the wrapping paper and ribbon (my dad has more ribbon than anyone I have ever met!) Time for last minute Christmas preparations!
We wrapped presents together and then Gregg and I played some Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, which he was kind enough to give me some of the easier questions to make it seem like a fair game.
These are the stockings I made. For each kid we wanted something that represented their name. Elora has a Juniper tree sprig on hers (her middle name is Juniper), Marion has a Lipizzaner horse (because they are famous in Vienna where she was born – that was actually Elora’s idea), Oliver has music notes because he loves music, and although I did not name him after Elvis, his middle name is Presley, and James has stars because his middle name is Orion. It was fun and crazy to celebrate Christmas Eve with the big family, we had never done that before, but I am grateful that we did this year.
