So Much Fun!

What a great time we had! We celebrated Christmas this past weekend with the Davis clan - the entire Davis clan - 31 to be exact. It was really a lot of fun. All the stressing of the last several weeks paid off. We all watched and enjoyed the excitement as the little kids all opened their gifts from the aunts and uncles. I was so glad to see that my little nephew loved the "Texas" book that we gave him. He lives in Virginia, but it is a true Texan at heart and Lori (his mom) says that he loves to learn about history even at only 5 years old. Wonder what he will do when he grows up (teaching runs rampant in his family). After the kids finished up, it was time for the adults to partake in the traditional gift exchange, i.e. Chinese christmas, white elephant, whatever you want to call it. The funny thing was no one was stealing anyones gift until the very end with only about 3 people left. I got to keep what I opened and it was awesome....a Texas star with a snowman painted on it! I love it. I did think at one point I was going to have to take Kenneth down when he tried to steal it from me, but turned out he was just kidding! We had tons of food, lots of wine, bunch of beer (just ask charlie) and a really really great time! Oh yeah, forgot to mention our niece that lost 126 pounds since last Christmas - we thought Josh had picked up a new woman! She looked amazing! And how could I not mention how stinking cute Shelby looked...all dressed up in her fancy dress!

That was Saturday day, then Saturday night all the kids and grandkids spent the night. Now THAT is a true family Christmas - we had blow up beds laid out everywhere! Lyn and I slept in the living room so that we could keep an eye on Santa to arrive. We had made a special deal with him to come early to bring gifts for everyone, so we wanted to make sure we greeted him face to face when he showed up! He brought tons of stuff (notice the red Santa bags in the picture)!

The highlight of the night was the gingerbread houses. We only had 5 kits, so we coupled up and all gathered around the table to make them. It was a blast. Mine and Shannon's became more of a contemporary style home complete with solar panels and a "gummy lifesaver" chimney after our icing wouldn't hold the house together. Surely it couldn't have anything to do with the wine and beer that we were also enjoying! I thought we were pretty clever to come up with our new style of gingerbread house!

We had some awesome designs - the tree made by Dakota and Baylee was very nice! They did so good! Ashley and Cheyenne were a little more patient that Shannon and I, they actually got their house to stick together.

The little kids did an amazing job also - Deegan's had a little candy cane on the roof!

Carrie was the expert - she has obviously done this many times before - her's looked like a REAL gingerbread house that a pro had done! Cheater!

We really had a fantastic time and started a new tradition as well!

Sunday morning was reserved for donuts, coffee and SANTA gifts! Oh yeah! Sleepy eyed but definitely "bushy tailed" the kids were so excited to see that Santa did really come early just for them. The next few hours were spent opening gifts and enjoying being together! There is nothing better than the look on a childs face when they open up christmas presents! The rest of the day was filled with fun as well - we stayed in our pj's most of the day, played Rock Band, sang like true Rock Stars (karaoke style), ate everything in site, from fajitas& tamales to cookies, candy and pie, drank more wine and stayed inside in the warmth of our house! It was soooooo cold outside! Another family Christmas - what a great time and so much fun!