Our First Family Christmas Bash

About a month after moving into our new home, we hosted our first ever Christmas Bash for Extended Family. Trying to get ready for it was STRESSFUL with all the unpacking, house organizing, Christmas decorating, cleaning, cooking, and bar chair assembling (Jim and whoever else he could grab started assembling bar chairs about an hour before the event) but it was totally worth all the effort. We enjoyed a fabulous potluck buffet of soup, bread, and salad topped off by homemade cupcakes and Elly's famous ice cream. I'm thankful Jim worked so hard to get those bar chairs assembled as they were all put to good use! We visited,

and opened crazy white elephant gifts.

Taylor got the best gift of all, a picture of Eldon and...a fox? Eldon opened a gift of sweet smelling soap.

Grandma loved the candles she got...and was very disappointed when someone took them away.:(

The kids' favorite gift was the M&M dispenser in spite of the fact that it was filled with stale M&Ms.

We played,

and laughed,

and visited some more!

What fantastic family fun! We're grateful that we get to live so close to family.