It’s tradition in Zach’s family to spend Christmas Eve at Uncle Leo and Aunt Lois’ house. It’s also their tradition that they’re not together on Christmas Day. They do their Christmas celebration either before, or after Christmas. They also take turns hosting. I haven’t quite got it figured out. I think it goes from youngest to oldest, and because the two brothers in between the youngest, Bud (he and his wife hosted this year) and Zach, and they aren’t interested in hosting or some such thing as this, I believe that means it’s my turn next year.
To say that Zach’s family is huge is really a big time understatement. Granny and Poppy (his mom and dad) had seven kids: three girls, and then four boys- Zach being the oldest of the boys. They lost Lisa (the middle daughter) two years ago in June to a freak four-wheeling accident. The oldest sister has 2 kids; Lisa had four- the oldest of them now has two. Lorelei had three (we lost her son this year *tear*) and her oldest daughter has two children of her own, and her boyfriend has twin girls. So you can see where this is going, right? Not only does Zach have countless nieces and nephews, he has great nieces and nephews too. So all but two of Granny and Poppy’s kids have kids; the two holdouts are second youngest Wayne and the youngest Bud.
Needless to say we draw names. But that still makes for lots of presents under the tree- plus we buy for Zach’s two Goddaughters- the two that belong to his oldest sister. Granny and Poppy buy for everyone, as does Granny’s Niece Sharon. She also keeps us in more good horses to ride, but that’s not what this is about. This is about how much fun we had on New Year’s Day; when we could all be together.
There are lots of gifts.
These were taken before everyone arrived. No prizes guessing who wrapped the pretty ones in the front. If you guessed me, you win. If not, shame on you. Then the cuteness started showing up.
Great Niece, Jetta.
Her older sister, Layla in the brown and pink, and step-sister, Kaya in the turquoise.
Uncle Wayne and Jetta. I managed to catch him with a funny expression on his face.
There were cookies to be eaten.
Pictures to be taken (this is Colette-the oldest in the family) taking a picture of me!
Our niece Cindy, and her nephew (great nephew to us) Damion. Is he so cute? I might have gone crazy taking pictures of him. I just want to squeeze his cheeks!
Cute, Cute, Tia; the twin to Kaya above, and half sister to Jetta.
Niece Shari-mom to Jetta and Layla.
We also ate. Such yumminess. Kirsten, our lovely hostess, made lasagna, from scratch along with Caesar Salad and garlic toast.
Look at all that cheese. Yum.
And there were cookies. Glorious peanut butter stars. I’ve never had them made quite this way before and let me just tell you, they were Goo-ood!
Speaking of hosts, here is the lovely hosting couple. Bud was giving me grief about taking his photo.
and the grief continued:
Isn’t our hostess lovely?
And there were more pictures to be taken of me. Mind you, I’ve not seen them yet.
Another pretty niece, Katie
And more presents…once everyone finally arrived.
There were smiles:
Lauren, another great niece.
Laughter:
Zach and his sister, Lorelei
I finally managed to get Bud to smile:
That cute baby again:
Kelsey, and Cindy, who were born one day apart.
And attitude:
Wonder where they get it? Uncle Guthrie Maybe?
Love:
Granny sharing some love with the grandkids.
And then the mayhem began. And I do mean mayhem. Really my photos don’t capture the craziness that happens once everyone is given the green light to begin opening presents. Kids are tearing into stuff all at once! The floor is littered and it’s hard to see who gave what to whom. Crazy. Really. Crazy. Somewhere in that mayhem, three little girls, received necklaces made by The South Dakota Cowgirl. Lucky girls, really!
That is Kaya’s twin sister, Tia. Oh, wait, you’ve seen her already.
This is what remained of the mayhem:
When the mayhem subsided, we played football with the baby, drank some wine, and the kids played with their toys. Katie is on her third ipod. I’ve never even had one yet.
I know I took more pictures than what I showed here, but this was probably more than most of you wanted to see about our first family gathering of 2010. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Happy New Year Everyone!
WOW it looks like an amazing time. So lucky to have such a big family to enjoy the holidays with. I also have a huge family but the live 1200 miles away, so getting use to just the two of us for holidays is a huge adjustment to say the least:)
I love all your pictures and hope I can get a nice camera like that someday:) Glad your 2010 started out good.
Looks like so much fun; I’m always a little jealous of big families. And those presents are wrapped like works of art!
Zack’s enormous family reminds me of my mother’s enormous South Dakota family! I have never been able to keep track of the endless cousins! BTW, your gift wrapping is fab.
Super fun pics!