Family Togetherness

Back to our tales from Texas...

It was great to spend some time with my parents and my sister and her family over Christmas, but we were lucky to be able to spend the holidays with even more of our family as well.  A few days before Christmas, Great-Grandma Dot, Great Aunt Karen, and my cousins Courtney, Whitney, and Whitney's husband Blaise all arrived in Texas.  Yes, that's 14 people including those of us already there.  Oh, and don't forget about the five dogs that were also visiting, that's right, five dogs! (My parent's dog Riley, Rip, my sister's dogs Max and Albert, and my cousin Courtney's dog Riley)

It was a full house and we definitely enjoyed the time we had to spend together.  It was actually a foggy Christmas eve, so we spent much of our pre-holiday time inside, eating, playing, eating more, and just enjoying the season.

We wrapped presents...

(Courtney, Audra, and I do a little elfing.)

Played with the boys...

(Courtney and Evan read about Thomas the Train.)

(Grandma and Evan peek out of the window to look for Santa.)

(Whitney and Jack take a cuddle break.)

(Aunt Karen and Ben share a private joke.)

(Ben and Great-Grandma Dot take a little snooze.)

Played with the dogs...

(Blaise naps with four dogs...Riley on the head in a little Santa outfit, Max on his lap, Al under his hand, and Rip on the couch)

Cooked and ate...

(Great-Grandma and Grandpa make some smoothies.)

(The infamous Bitler goodie tins)

Made a gingerbread train...

(Jack prefers eating the candy to decorating.)

(Evan and Great-Grandma with the beautiful train)

Played games...
 

(A little friendly card game)

...and just hung out.

(Santa's helper)

Before we knew it, Christmas eve had arrived.  We put the boys in their matching PJ's, read the night before Christmas, put out the cookies and milk for Santa, and waited...

(Twas the night before Christmas)

(What a trio!)

You'll have to wait until our next installment to find out if Santa actually came, but by the looks of things, I think he might have stopped by...