Christmas vacation this year was as busy as ever. All of us met in the Gila Valley to celebrate Christmas together. It was a perfect time to have a Natividad Christmas to feel each others strength and love for each other and especially for our Mom.
Each day was packed with activities and food! Pictures don't justify the mad chaos at dinner time trying to feed 25 kids and 15 adults or the craziness of trying to keep everyone happy, but after our time together I still think I have the best family ever and am grateful we have each other!
Here we go!
Everyone had trickled into town by Saturday night except Eric left behind to work. Sunday my brother Marc blessed his baby Rebecca and we all crashed at the homestead for a delicious meal. The rest of the day we visited and just hung out . Todd and Uncle Aaron were the best. They had most of the grand kids outside playing red rover, running relay races, and just plain wearing the kids out so they would sleep.
Leilani's family stayed with Lehua, Marc's family with Mom, and Malia's and my family stayed with Kanani, so, we were able to separate at night and calm some of the chaos. The kids took turns spending the night at different houses. It was great cousin bonding time. It's fun to see what personalities get along with one another and the ones that don't. I love watching the older kids mature into teenagers. They "hang-out" and are just so cool!
Monday we packed our day full. We had the kids pictures in the afternoon at EAC (Leilani was the lucky photographer), Then we ate an early dinner at Casa Manana. I preordered our food so we didn't have to hang out with 25 starving kids under the age of 16. Diane also gave the back room to us to have all to ourselves! After eating we headed to Mom and Dad's house where the children got to ride in a little train pulled by a tractor. (Thank-you Danny!) The children all loved it! After the train ride we had dilly bars and headed over to the family talent show at the stake center.It was alot of fun watching the children perform in various ways. Kenzi slept through the entire thing, Traekon played an according while Bretton did a little jig, and Ashton showed everyone how good he is at giving zerberts(blowing on someones tummy and making a tooting sound:). I was way impressed at the talent of all my nieces and nephews!
Laureen and Tammy were there and so was Aunt Leora and her crew. Aaron did the Mexican Horse Race using volunteers from the audience who didn't know the game. Of course we made Aunt Leora get up there. The joke was on her and Marc and she had no clue! She kept on going while we were all laughing so hard we cried! It was hilarious! It is definitely something we'll talk about for years to come! Fun times!!
10 gorgeous Girly Girls!
15 rough boys!
This is my 14 year old nephew Kale. He was amazing at the fire knife dance! My Dad's knife has been passed on to the Lopez family where they carry on the tradition.
Leilani and Lehua were in charge of dinner that night. Per Malia's request they rolled lumpia made California rolls, yellow coconut curry, rice and loaded brownies. Due to the nature of the lumpia it took all afternoon to prepare. Malia was suppose to help in all this rolling but she was waiting for my mom to get back from the meeting with the oncologist before heading up to my house. Since she missed out on the rolling we put her to work deep frying all the lumpia. It was well worth the effort as it tasted great!
Wednesday was Christmas Eve. Following tradition we (all of us plus the Taylor Clan) preordered our pizza and met at Pizza Hut for the beginning of our Christmas Eve festivities. Even though we preordered and warned Pizza Hut there would be over 50 of us, it was still a little on the chaotic side! Pizza's were coming out at a descent speed, but the drinks took for ever! The kids were as patient as they could be. Hopefully next time Pizza Hut will assign us two waitresses instead of one!
After Pizza Hut we all hopped in our cars and did our caroling. Each year we have the same route and I actually think the people enjoy us coming! Uncle clarence always has pink popcorn balls waiting for us. It wouldn't be Chrismas without the Natividad/Taylor- out of tune -caroling bunch! We couldn't let mom miss out on the caroling so we inserted her into the route. When we got there Dad had Mom in the car ready to go. She planned her Morphine just right and away we went. I was glad she was able to join us.
Following the caroling we met at the church house for the reenactment of the Nativity. All the kids chose what they wanted to be. There was plenty of costumes for everyone. Traekon was a shepard, Kenzi an angel, and Todd took ashton home to change his diaper and never came back! It's okay though cause I told him he didn't have to (which he was really surprised about).
Kenzi was such a cute angel! She thouroughly enjoyed the little white tutu she got to wear.
We ended the night with long anticipated candybar game.
Throughout the week the grand kids were intermingled, sleeping at different houses nightly. We didn't want to confuse Santa so on Christmas Eve we each gathered our own children and made them sleep at the homes we were staying in. We had decided just to stay at the different homes and open presents.We headed off to the Brown's where the kids got to open one present. They were pretty excited
about that. Woo Hoo for new pajamas!! Which I made by the way:)
The next morning we woke up (we told the kids no earlier then 6) had family prayer and headed into the living room to see what santa brought. Ashton got a new dump truck and a train table, Kenzi got a leaptster and a new horse, and Traekon got a dirt bike. He was shaky at first but he's pretty good at it now. I got a wheat grinder and a bosch so I can start making bread and Todd got a dirt bike. It was fun christmas!
By lunch time several of us headed to Mom and Dad's to wish them a Merry Christmas and to get the kids out of the house. We were there a few hours before we again separated to get ready for the pictures. We were all very glad when they were done. Trying to organize 40 people for a picture is not easy. Aunt Leora snapped the pictures with Bam's camera as we stood there, hoping to get at least one decent shot. Thank goodness for digital cameras!
Friday morning the Mom's(Sister's) all decided to go on a bike ride. We gotta get the exercise in so we can eat all the junk food without feeling so bad! The Dad's prepared to head out on a ATV, dirt bike, rhino ride. The women headed out first. The day had started out bitter cold and dreary.Why we were attempting a bike ride was a mystery to me, but heck why not? What was the worst that could happen? We all bundled up especially Ka
nani. She had layers and layers on! As we began our ride, it started hailing on us. Not big hail but small hail that felt like thousands of little needles being shot at us. Our faces really took the brunt of the hail as that was the only part of our bodies not covered up. Our cheeks felt numb like going to the dentist. On our way back we were tempted to head to Aunt Leora's so we could call the guys to pick us up in the truck but resisted. We would never have lived it down if we did, so we surged forward. It sure was a lot further then remembered. But it was another adventure that we will never forget!After the ride. Brrrr it's cold! You can't see, but we were soaking wet!
When we got back the guys were just leaving on their adventure. They also froze as they rode up into the snow on their motorbikes and ATV's. Crazy, crazy, crazy! What we will do for a little fun and a lot of torture!
Aaron was so cold that he didn't even notice when his hand hit a cactus and a needle penetrated his finger and up through his fingernail!
We were planning on a trip to the movies to watch Bedtime Stories but the guys were too exhausted as were we. We ended up dropping the older kids off at the 9:00pm movie and then the sisters went out for dessert to kill time. After dessert we headed to Kameron's house to waste away the rest of the time. We were all so tired, a few of us even dosed off for a few minutes. When we picked up the kids it was snowing!!! We couldn't get to the respective homes fast enough. We had definitely over exhorted ourselves this day!
I love these girls!
Saturday
We played all day! The kids spent most of there time on the 4 wheelers and dirt bike. Then that evening we took the rest of the kids to see bedtime stories.
What a fun, busy, stressful Christmas. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way! Let's just say we needed a vacation from our vacation:) I love my family and am so glad that we can be together forever!
3 comments:
What a fun Christmas! That's so exciting to be able to make bread. The bosch makes excellent cookie dough, fyi! Just like I told Lehua, you guys are nuts going on that bike ride, it was FREEZING! I love all the family pics, and just think it's so awesome that you were ALL able to be here together.
yeah you posted! Good job :)
I loved your Christmas update! It sounds like you guys had a wonderful (if hectic) time!
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