Holiday Madness 2014

By now you should know that any time we get together with my family there will be a blog post with too many pictures of my nieces and nephews.

With that warning out of the way, Spencer and I planned for months to spend Thanksgiving in Idaho with my sister and her family this year. And we were very happily surprised to find out that my parents and several more of my siblings were going to be joining us!

I would be lying if I said it wasn't madness. But oh, what glorious madness it was! 2 days of 10 adults and 6 kids  hanging out in a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment. Two pregnant sisters and 3 babies under a year old. Lots of giggling and playing cousins, intermingled with the occasional biting, hitting, and falling. Meal after meal of DELICIOUS food, not limited to shrimp dip, homemade snickers, and real Mexican tacos. We played lots of games (FARKLE champion, at your service), snuggled lots of babies, and only one person ended up in the hospital (my poor dad had a kidney stone).

Save me?

Adam and Kiera became best buds.

After the two days everyone else went home and Spencer and I spent the rest of the week with Michelle and Austin. None of us had ever done Thanksgiving on our own, but I am very proud of how everything turned out. We made way too much food (of course) but it was so much fun.  We played more games, giggled with their babies, and just enjoyed ourselves. And I tried to do a family photo shoot with them but the weather and the little girls did not cooperate so we just took a few quick shots inside. Boo. Next time!

Thanksgiving was amazing. I was a little sad that we needed to stay in Illinois for Christmas, but I'm so glad we were able to see so many people for at least one of the major holidays.

Christmas at home was fairly simple but lots of fun. It was such an adventure figuring out how to decorate our first home, and of course we got a real tree!

Christmas day was spent opening presents and then the missionaries came over to spend the rest of the day with us. They skyped their families here and we played games and ate food all day long. We also got to talk with Spencer's family in the morning, and then had a family skype session with ALL of my immediate family. Yeah that's right. 2 parents, 8 siblings and 6 spouses, and 10 grandkids...all at the same time. All that I'll say about that is that I am rarely more entertained than when my family is all together.

Silly missionaries...

It was a very merry Christmas!