Merry Christmas 2015 recap.......

Let me just say WOW!  As most of you know I am an only child which makes for an interesting birth order....  So when my wonderfully amazing girlfriend tells me that she is 1 of 7, I try to understand that dynamic....I did watch a little of that with my own three children, so I wasn't completely oblivious.  My first introduction to the family was not really overwhelming but quite complex I'd say.  You see the oldest of the 7 children hosted a Thanksgiving Day dinner.  The oldest is married to a very nice man that is 1 of 5 children in his family.  Now you have to understand that they all have known each other for years and brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins have all grown up together.  It's like all of the households from the original 12 children of 2 families, come together under one roof for a holiday, just like they were all raised in just one house.  It's like any "family" get together is like the party of the decade!  Most only children would be overwhelmed I think.  As for me though, I always wanted a big family because from the outside in, it looked fun.  Maybe it was that grass is greener thing......  Turns out though, other than me still learning names a month later, it was fantastic!  This family is just as I imagined a big family would always be.  Grandma and Grandpa, enjoying their adult children, grandchildren and all of the laughter and joy of the stories of events that everyone remembers.  The "open arms" hospitality that can only come from a family that loves each and every member and extended member.  

Christmas was just as wonderful to experience.  My name to faces ratio was a little better at this event.  Lol. We did the Christmas Eve event at the same sister's house as Thanksgiving, I was happy to see one of my girl's Aunt and Uncle and Cousin.  They are amazing people that I just love how they are.  I'm really looking to have more one on one time with them tomorrow when the come for a more intimate visit with us and the beach.  So after our evening of family and food, lots and lots of food, we went home and got all rested for our own Christmas morning. 

We awoke around 8am, I wanted to get an early start in the kitchen so I got up right away.  The plan was to cook breakfast for the girls that were coming at 10am to open presents.  We had a strict timeline to keep on Christmas Day.  A timeline that I agreed to keep with the family the night before...Uh oh.  So around 8:30, we get a call from one of the girls in a panic that says she is running late and not going to make it by 10am.  We said no problem, we still had one girl MIA.  So I started cooking with an expected eat time of 10:30ish. Mistake!  10:30 ish actually turned out to be 12:00pm ish.  It was all good though, at times a bit stressful and others just laughing  and enjoying it all.  Everyone showed up and we had a great time, good food and wonderful company!  We finished eating about 6min, before we were suppose to leave for Grandma and Grandpa's house....that's the "uh oh" part.  You see, we still had to open all of those presents.....so it was Christmas and that's one of the joys of the day.  Seeing the ones you love open the gifts that you acquired for them because you know they would love them.  The 7 hours of wrapping that my girl did, got destroyed in a matter of 1 hour.  The couch was full of 4 people, their gifts and a sea of torn paper and ribbon on the floor.  With absolutely no time to clean anything we all grabbed what we needed for our next stop and hit the road to Grandma's House!

Surprisingly, no one said a word when we arrived 1 hour late.  Again we had a house full of people but several from the night before didn't make this visit.  So my name to faces ratio got even better!  It was a wonderful time, we did the presents thing again and had some food.  It was nice to see the "kids", all adult kids, hanging together and having their time just like they had never grown up.  The laughter, love and happiness that can be seen in a family of this size is wonderful. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for all of these people that I was able to enjoy for my holiday!  The missed timelines and pitfalls are just part of the joy in a family this size and enjoyed just the same as everything else!  In fact when someone that has struggled to get there finally arrives it seems as though you actually enjoy seeing them all the more!