A Great Good Christmas Gathering

This year's extended Good family gathering was held on Saturday, December 17, at 4 pm. We always look forward to going each year to see all the family gathered at Grandma Good's house.

We arrived right on time, and upon entering the home we took off our coats and Ryan started getting passed around. One of the first family members to hold him was Poppy. Then when cousins Don & Jessica arrived with baby Jordyn, we tried to get a picture of the two of them together.

The first thing we do is eat. It is an amazing spread of ham balls, sandwiches, a pasta casserole, every type of chip imaginable, fruit, deviled eggs, shrimp, taco dip, cheese & crackers, and some amazing desserts. I haven't even listed half the things offered, but I can tell you that no one goes home hungry!

We take our food and pick seats out among tables upstairs and downstairs. Everyone sort of finds a spot to feed their kiddos together. We sat at a table with cousins Grant & Jenavieve and Aunt Gayle & Uncle Brian in the basement. Joshua especially was excited to be with his cousins!

At the end of the night, I tried to get a picture of Caleb, Benjamin and Jenavieve who were all born around the same time. Jenavieve wasn't interested in pictures, though, so we just got some of Caleb and Ben. I want to say Ben is roughly four months older than Caleb, if I'm remembering correctly.

After we finished eating and cleaned up, we sat in a circle to play the normal gifts games. Each year, Grandma Good puts a new twist on the game which I think is great. This year, we weren't allowed to touch the presents, and the children passed them out. This worked PERFECTLY! The kids were busy handing out prizes, and they LOVE being helpers. I thought it was a great way to include them in the adult games. Grandma Good is always so thoughtful in how she handles things. In the picture below, you can see Joshua taking a present he picked out for someone across the room.

The kids would pull out numbers out of the basket, and whoever had that number said "That's mine!" and the kids would take a gift of their choice to that person.

For the larger gifts, a bunch of them walked them together. My kids laughed and laughed at this, especially the Bean.

I caught the other "mama-razzi" in the room snapping pictures as well.

 

On the table behind her head, you can see jars full of candy or various items. There were four jars at the beginning of the night that we were to guess a number that was in each one. Each person was to guess (even the kiddos) and whoever had the guess closest to that number won the item. With three kids going three different directions, I simply wrote down random guesses (which I can't remember now). But, it was something like 64, 32, 121, 87. When the time came for her to tell us who won the items, four people had guessed the same number for one, so Shawn had to re-guess. He didn't win with his second guess. BUT, I won two out of the four!!! I couldn't believe it. I now have a huge jar of Twizzlers, and I gave the big glass tree full of Hershey Kisses to Uncle Kevin since he really likes them. I guess I was having a lucky night! I should have played the lottery!

The other "lucky" part of our evening was in the "now-you-have-it-now-you-don't" game. There are lots of different items that Doris wraps for this game - I saw towels, Yankee Candles, Bath & Body Works soaps, junk food, a storage container with gold fish, and all sorts of other goodies. Shawn & I both got the boxes filled with toilet paper and paper towels. We struck gold! Those used to be considered 'gag' gifts, but we enjoy them. We go through plenty of both in this household!!! :) :) :) We appreciate the practical items as well as the nicer things. :) :) :)

After we were done, the kids all opened a package together. In it were fruit snacks, juice boxes and gold fish, along with some wash cloths. We actually needed some more kiddo washcloths, so this was again perfect!

Then the kiddos started opening their gifts from Great Grandma Good. Caleb was excited for his Cars2 Tokyo Mater toy!

Joshua LOVED the dinosaurs he got. They turn different colors depending on if you put them in hot or cold water. He has played and played with them!!! That night, Grant opened his dinosaurs (which were slightly different) and shared some with Joshua as they were playing together. I thought that was really nice, and so did Joshua. He said "It was nice of Grant to share with me." :) :) :)

Caleb also got some Trio connects to make helicopters and crazy creatures with - he loves them!

 Both boys have HIGHLY enjoyed building the castles that were in the gift Joshua is holding below. He was excited for us to open it up, and the entire week leading up to Christmas (and beyond!), he built all sorts of neat-o castles. Caleb likes to knock them over as much as he likes to build them, but they will both be serious for a long time trying to build new items that look like the ideas/instructions that were on the inside of the box. THANKS for the gifts!!! They were great!

When the kids were done opening, they played and played together. Joshua adores Jordon and wanted to follow him everywhere. Jordon also likes his older cousin (or second cousin or whatever!) Colton, and this year Gayle was dating a guy named Steve and his son Stevie was along as well. I was HIGHLY impressed with these older kids (I'm going to guess pre-teens, but I'm not quite sure how old they are - maybe junior high???). They included the younger kids and played well with them. Both Joshua & Caleb played hide 'n seek with Jordon, Colton and Stevie. I emailed Colton's Mom (not sure how often she checks her email, though, and not even sure if this is the correct address) to tell her how impressed I was with his behavior. He was extremely polite, well-behaved and very thoughtful with the younger kids. He even came up to me and told me how cute Ryan is.

The kids ran and played and all got along well together. :) :) :)

Here's Uncle Brian with the Bean. Joshua told Aunt Missy that he got "ten hundred and one" in this game thing. He loves making up numbers, and the bigger the better as far as he is concerned!

Here are Grant & Jenavieve. Caleb would pop in and out of where he was playing, so he was hard to capture on camera! He did tell me, though, that he was ready to play with his friend, Aunt Missy, and went off to find her and Uncle Kevin at one point in the evening.

Baby Ryan was pretty good overall that night. He was passed around quite a bit, but he stayed fairly easygoing right up until the end of the night when he was hungry. I asked Shawn if I should take him to a room upstairs to nurse him or if we were heading out soon, and he suggested I hold off and we'd leave in the near future. 

 

Nonie also held him at one point and got him to sleep while the kids were opening their gifts. My sweet little Ry-guy also got some gifts from Grandma Good, including a great book of prayers and a praise CD, along with some Cars board books that are great! :)

I took a couple photos of other folks who had come that evening. I didn't come close to capturing everybody. Ashley & Phil (in the glasses) are the newly weds this year. Gayle is dating Steve (in the Eagles sweatshirt). I missed getting a picture of her four kiddos who were all there that night. I also missed getting pictures of Shawn's family (Nonie, Poppy, Alicia, Missy & Kevin, Brian & Gayle, etc.). I also didn't get any of our family at all together - DOH!

Shawn's Uncle Jim & Aunt Shari are together, but I missed getting one of Don & Jessica together with their kids. :( I got one of Jess taking pictures and Ben & Jordyn with their cousins (or whatever the name of the relation is since Don & Shawn are the actual cousins!). Also pictured is Shawn's Uncle Jeff, Aunt Stacy and cousin Austin.

But, we did try to get a couple of Ryan & Jordyn together, who I think were both tired at this point in the evening. I didn't get a really good one, but this is the best I got. Anyway, we had a fun evening together as always. Shawn loaded up all our gifts in the car (thanks again!) and we headed home in the light dusting of snow we had received while we were there. I got a few recipes from folks later in the week that I had asked for, which was also great. It's always a fun time of fellowship at this Christmas gathering, and we so appreciate Shawn's Grandma Good who makes it all happen with her thoughtfulness and generosity. It was a "Great Good Christmas!"