Good Family Christmas

On Saturday, December 18, we headed to Grandma Good's house when the kids woke up from their naps. The Good extended family gathering is one of our favorites of the season. Here's a picture I snapped of Grandma Good, even though I wasn't at the best angle since I was sitting on the floor below.

Here are most of the families in attendance. This year, Grandma designed the gift game a little differently, and we were to sit in groups with our immediately family, or who we lived with. Jess - Shawn's cousin Don's wife - went around and took pictures of everyone that she emailed me (thanks so much!). So, I tried to put the families in order of age. Mike, Shawn's Dad, is the oldest son. Here are Mike, Bonnie and Hilary, who is the youngest and still lives at home.

Belonging to him starts Missy, who couldn't be there that night (and I didn't see a picture of Kevin even though he was there). Next is Shawn, pictured with his family.

 Then is Shawn's younger brother Brian and his family:

Next is Alicia and her son Jordon.

That's it for Mike's family. His next brother is Jim, picture below with his wife Shari. They also have a gal living with them right now that they're helping, but I didn't see a picture of her.

 Jim's son Don is the oldest, pictured below with his wife Jess who took the pictures, and Ben their oldest son (they're also expecting their next one in March so next Christmas there will be two new Good babies!).

Shari's daughter Ashley is next, pictured with her fiancee Phil. Their wedding is planned for Mexico in May.

That's it for Jim's family. The next brother in line is Jeff, pictured below with Stacy and their only son Austin.

The final sibling is Gayle Yeager, pictured below with her four children. Kirsten, the oldest; Kalie, the youngest; Kelcey, the second; and Colton, the third and only boy of their family.

This year, Grandma changed the order of things a bit. We ate first, and the spread of food is always amazing. Grandma works hard to make everything look nice and some folks contribute to the meal. This year there were ham balls, various types of sandwiches, deviled eggs, baked ziti, crackers & cheese, chips & pretzels, shrimp & cocktail sauce, amazing fresh fruit, veggies & dip, tons of yummy desserts, and more! I stood in line and got the boys their food, and then went back for myself. Here's Brian at the kids table. We joined him when we had our plates. The food was delicious! And little Ben sitting next to Uncle Brian can really eat.

After dinner was over, we sat in our groups of immediate families for the gift game. Joshua wanted to sit with his cousin Jordon, and since they were sitting next to us, we said okay to letting them share a chair.

We typically play a variety of "now you have it, now you don't." We each pull numbers, and when our number is called ,we can pick a gift off the table or grab someone else's. This year, the gifts were for families, so while we each still got a number, you decided as a family to get another gift or keep the one you have. I thought it was a GREAT idea! Here are the family gifts:

We took the biggest box, in hopes of coming home with some paper towels. In years past, these were considered one of the gag gifts like toilet paper and other items like that. But, Shawn is so practical, he LOVES these types of gifts. Since we had the biggest box, it made its way all around the room. Here's Joshua showing off his number 28. Caleb was excited to get the number 2 as he is two years old. The numbers aren't called in order but as she randomly pulls them out of a bucket. Then at the end, each family got one number to decide trade or keep the package. We were lucky and pulled the number 8, which was near the end, so we ended up with the package we wanted, which did in fact hold the paper towels as we suspected!

Here's little Ben opening his family's gift. I thought the family gifts was a neat idea. Inside each box was a game for a kiddo, something like soap or cooking items for a wife, and something practical for a man. In years past, all the same gifts were there, but you never knew who would end up with it. So, sometimes a kid got the toilet paper and an adult got a stuffed animal. That was the fun of the game! But, this year, while the game was still fun, everyone definitely had something they wanted to go home with.

Our box contained Cheetos, which the kids LOVED, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, a snowman plate (which we used to leave cookies out for Santa), a kitchen 'Tangerine' soap from Bath & Body Works, paper towels, and a Cooties Game. There may have been more, but that's what I remember.

After the family games were done, she divided up the kids' presents, which are all pictured above. I'm sure it was the camera flash, but doesn't it look like we're praying over the gifts in the picture below? I giggled at the photo.

The kids were excited to open their gifts, but they waited until Grandma Good was done handing them out and seated and said it was okay to open one. I loved Joshua's expressions in the pictures below.

The first gift the Bean opened was a dinosaur coloring and sticker book, which he has had lots of fun with already! He loves stickers and dinosaurs (and coloring, of course) so this was perfect.

The first gift Caleb opened was a box of 'treats' or Sponge Bob fruit chewies. He ate about four packs as the night wore on, as he would bat his pretty blue eyes at people and ask them to open them for him with a big please.

 Joshua also received a box of Cars treats, as well as a Bop bag that Grant had mistakenly opened (he opened two Toy Story shooter games, one of which was Grant's, so we simply traded!). The Toy Story game has been a huge hit in our house, as he loves to aim the air shooter (which has little foam disks in it) to knock down the character that the dice tells you to aim for.

Another favorite was this cool light-up toy that he opened, which you can see below.

But, it was when he opened his piano, microphone and drums that everyone began to laugh. He immediately started to play piano and sing Jingle Bells. I loved the expressions in the picture below. Joshua's singing, I'm snapping a picture, and Grandma Good is smiling at how much the Bean is enjoying his gift.

Here's the picture I took:

I also thought the picture below was funny. Ben does NOT look like he's enjoying the Bean's singing, even though he joined in. You'll notice the "pinchers" that Ben is holding in the picture below (which is what Joshua calls them) - Caleb also got a pair and enjoys picking things up with them. The boys chased each other with them that night.

Caleb also received a "Handy Manny" book and a whole creative Color Wonder "Sound Studio" that makes noise when you color. You'll see Ben giving Grandma Good a kiss below, which was too precious not to include. I think all the kids gave hugs and kisses that night.

 Here's Caleb opening more gifts. Another one of his favorites from the evening was a little hand-held "computer" that has various games the boys like to play, and a dump truck with rocks in it that actually get picked up and put in the back.

As I was watching our boys open things, I was trying to also check out the other kids, who seemed just as thrilled with their gifts. Here's Jordon with one of his:

And here's Grant with his Mack truck.

 And unfortunately the picture I got of Jenavieve is fuzzy. :(

 I loved the picture above of Ben climbing right into the big box. That was what Caleb had said he wanted for Christmas, and I can see how much fun boxes are! I think this particular box was from one of Grandma Good's gifts. Here she is opening one of ours.

We got a picture of Jess & I, as we did a couple years ago when we were pregnant with Ben & Caleb, who are both two. Afterward, we washed our hands and started this year's Christmas craft, which was making Reindeer Chow, trail mix, etc. I enjoyed making the creations with the other ladies there.

As we were packing up things, Jess accidentally spilled one of her bags of trail mix, pieces of which landed on the floor. As the kids flocked to the area to eat what had been spilled, we all laughed. Unfortunately, Caleb ate a cashew and did NOT like the flavor of it. I didn't realize what was going on at first, but Daddy snapped a picture of his face... right before he decided to THROW IT UP! All over Grandma's carpet came his dinner up with the nut he didn't care for - oh, how my children's ability to regurgitate never ceases to amaze (and revolt) me. Luckily, we had our handy paper towels, and I stripped Caleb's vest off of him and took him upstairs to the bathroom to wash his hands and face. Then I asked Grandma for some carpet cleaner as Daddy cleaned up the area. The smell alone almost killed Jess & me.

Caleb wasn't the only one stripping, though. Ben decided that he was done with his clothes, too, and got buck naked right then and there. They had pajamas for him, which they quickly put on. Oh, how silly kids are! Caleb was fine once I got him a drink - in fact, he was happy and playing once again. He just didn't care for the texture and/or taste. Oh, my little Bluke! It was bed time, so we started packing up our things and helping to clean up the basement, carrying things upstairs and helping put things in their proper place. We left around 9 pm, if I'm remembering correctly, and the boys said they had a great time. We did, too. It's always fun to hang out with family and enjoy the holidays. Thanks for all you do, Grandma Good, and your generous gifts!