Let's talk about Christmas

For Christmas 2013 we made the big trip to Oregon

to see Frank's family

The secondary reason for going was that it was Frank's 50th birthday

and I wanted to be able to have a party where his family could attend.

Each milestone and holiday feels like a little gift now

and I was hoping it would be special for Frank.
(more on the birthday later)

Frank's sister, Diana, had the great idea to rent a house at the beach so that we could all be together in one house.

It was so great!

The kids all got along

and the weather was amazing!

I was expecting freezing cold, rain and wind

and we got mild temperatures, no wind and a lot of sunshine!

The only thing that didn't quite work out was that Branden wasn't able to get time off of work to come.

So sad.

Of course, we understood.  You have to put your livelihood and family first.

But it was a bummer none-the-less.

Amber came with baby Isabelle though.

I was trying to imagine how I would have felt if, after two years of marriage and very little interaction with the in-laws, my husband told me I had to go spend 10 days without him visiting said in-laws.

I wouldn't have been happy about it.

Luckily, Amber is a good sport and she came anyway.
We sure enjoyed it and I think she did too.
And we all got to know each other a little better too.

and

We loved spending time with Isabelle!!

It took her quite a few days to warm up to us.

She would be laughing or talking with her mom and if she saw us she would clam up and get a serious look on her face.

Finally, finally she decided we were ok!

Frank danced and sang and worked hard to get that little girl to smile for him.

hilarious

All of the other boys were there too and it was great to see them and to see them all together.

Christmas was mayhem.

The sheer number of gifts was overwhelming!

We had 3 families there

and a small tree that we put up on an end table.

It was a good thing we put it up like that because the pile of presents would have been taller than the tree if we hadn't!

We opened our traditional pajamas on Christmas Eve.

You might recall that I screwed that up last year.

I learned my lesson!

Diana had decided not to do pajamas

so, for her two youngest kids, she wrapped up their current pajamas for them to open!

haaa!

It was so funny.  They were confused to say the least.

But its the opening that's fun, right?

Everything was different with all the extra people and being in a different place.

I totally spaced my usual picture in front of the tree.

bummer!

Christmas Morning:

Nice photo bomb, Hannah!

Frank's new remote car starter!

(Yes, we got each other the same thing. haa)

What? No pictures of Carter on Christmas Morning??

Ugh.

That kid avoids the camera like the plague.

Hopefully someone else will have a picture that they can send me.

And the grand finale:

Isabelle in her Christmas dress!