Opening Gifts with My Family on Christmas Eve

This year we had the plan to open gifts first because Sarah and Jeremy needed to leave after dinner and get over to the Roe Christmas. SoOO....Gifts at 2 and dinner at 4:30 was the plan. My family tends to run a little behind...all of you who know me are not surprised by this at all are you! Anyway, a few years back...prob about 5 now, my parents added on a great room off the kitchen. What a blessing this room has been to our family! It is just so nice to be able to have everyone in one space and have the room to not be sitting on top of each other...plus it is beautiful! So we pile into this room and we open gifts--a free for all...well not quite...at its finest!A view of the family opening giftsGracie patiently waiting for the go ahead from GrandmaAddyson "opening" her first gift. She definitely would have been perfectly fine to chew on it without unwrapping it! Papa and Megan providing the girls with a crowd for opening their gifts...Gracie LOVED her new leotard and tutu!

Leah working hard at getting all of the paper off and getting the box open...what could it be? Karys was eagerly unwrapping as well...she definitely moved quickly!Breathtakingly BEAUTIFUL!

YAY! Thanks for the new sweater mom! Too cute!

If you would have asked Gracie before Christmas what she wanted she had one main thing on her list...a combine! Papa Jeff scored big with this gift...I think she could have been done right then! She was one satisfied girlie ;)Karys had the same excitement when she opened her new cheerleader outfit! Her list contained a dump truck (which I think was only on the list b/c Gracie wanted a combine) and dress up clothes which she could not have got enough of! The girls hardly ever wears normal clothes without one of her many dress up outfits over the top! Thanks Auntie Sarah!Addyson LOVED her glow worm that she got from PAPA! And I am sporting my fancy new scarf from mom and dad ;)How many ppl, and their gifts, can we fit on the couch???Another BEAUTY!!!!Megan was SOOOO excited to get her guitar!!! She is signed up for lessons/class this spring so we are all excited to have her play us some songs this spring! I think at this point though she was started to wonder a little...this was the last gift that she had opened and she had gotten nothing from Sarah or I yet. Sarah leaned over to me at one point and said, "how long do you think we should let her think that we aren't giving her anything?"

It wasn't much longer and we gave her our gift! A weekend of scrapbooking with Mom, Sarah, and Aunt Shirley and we were able to provide her with over 50 pages of South Africa scrapbook pages!!! Addyson hung out in the excersaucer while we finished up gifts and cleaned up...jumping away and happy as everGracie poses by the Christmas tree...She was so much fun to watch! She opened her gifts so quietly and took in each one. Then she headed into the kitchen with all of her stuff, took it out of the boxes and organized it into "her" pile. She is so her father's daughter in this way! Then once she had her pile, she came back to watch others finish opening their gifts...Karys is turning into quite the little poser...reminds me of Megan when she was little! She showed extreme excitement over each gift as if it was her favorite thing...but as quickly as it was her favorite she was over it and onto the next thing ;)Addyson is definitely her FAVORITE little person to pose with!Look at my proud little girl! She loves being the "Big" cousin and was ABSOLUTELY thrilled to be able to hold Caden for the pictures!!!
All of the cousins under the tree! What great gifts they all are! I remember saying to Sarah last year, "If you have a baby by next Christmas our family will be an even dozen!" Well, well, well...JOY!!!SEEEESSSTERS!

I LOVE these women! I don't know what I would do or where I would be without any of them!!!

Extended Goeman Christmas Craziness

Every year, my dad's family gets together sometime around Christmas...either on the front/back end depending on when most ppl can make it back. We share an evening of hoers devours and in the past couple years have stopped drawing names and instead been doing a "stealing" gift exchange. I know you are probably familiar with this game and I am sure there are a ton of different ways to play it! We just have so much fun doing it! You always have your staple gifts...the blankets, CDs, or coffee paraphernalia ;) And there there are always the curve ball gifts....those are the ones you remember from year to year! The first year we did this I remember Ben got stuck with a spice rack (a wedding gift that the Roe's had regifted). Another time Dylan made sure he got his gift back to bring home with him, the pajama pants Megan stole from me right in the final minutes....oh the fun-Let the game begin!All of the ladies (missing some aunties) all together before the games began. Gotta love that I managed to make this pic a little more entertaining!Megan and Leah all smiles as they find their place to sit...Gracie found a place to sit too!!! What a great looking bunch of girlies!Jamie kicked the game off by opening a Snuggie...not just any Snuggie though! A Leopard print Snuggie! This is going to be one of those things that gets stolen for sure!Jen followed suit...she knew it was going to be something "good" b/c when my mom saw her choose this gift she couldn't contain her excitement! Mom definitely needs work on her poker face ;)Just what she wanted!!! A fish hat, lures, a game and oven mitts shaped like fish that Jen so thoughtfully utilized as slippers! Love it!rJeremy was up next...he contemplated going for the fishing misc. but chose to open a new one. Candy Cane Philosophy body wash!!!! Should have gone for the fish!Papa was up next and hit the jackpot with a Kohl's gift card and an 8-pack of Coca-Cola Classic.Ben was up next, looking to score with a new gift and unimpressed by what was already in play he opened a new one. His box held a universal charging caddy and a stainless steel water bottle!Christy was next, not a whole lot of stealing going on up to this point, and she opened a single cup coffee pot with a cutisie package of hot chocolate! Very fun!Somewhere in there Mom had gone and opened the CUTEST lunch box filled with lotions and creams from Bath and Body...I stole that, she took Dads gift card and Coke, and Dad ended up opening a reed diffuser. At this point in the picture he is definitely trying to sell his product to the masses!Josh was up next! He had high hopes and went for a new gift...An egg-slicer!!!! That can also conveniently slice strawberries and small tomatoes as well! He was less than thrilled, but his mom was pumped!Grandma Norma was next and went for Jeremy's candy cane body wash (after much convincing on Jeremy's part!), Jeremy then got smart and went for the fishing loot, and Jen was left to open a new gift...YES! Colbie Caliat's new CD and STARBUCKS!!!! Rob let Gracie choose a gift from under the tree to open...YES!!! A great screwdriver/bit set from Black & Decker! Nice work kiddo!Sarah was up next and scoped out the field....only to end up choosing the gift she brought-Colbie&Coffee! I would too! Colbie is so GREAT!Kylie had high hopes when she went for the "big" bag, and was not disappointed to find a handmade tie blanket from Jen! COZY!!!!!As we neared the end Meg went in to check out Ken's COZY blanket and stainless steal water bottle. She couldn't pass it up and made the final steal! Ken sealed the game by opening up the final gift--a movie (We are Marshall) and the game was done!Now that it was his, Jamie very enthusiastically displayed his leopard Snuggie for all to see!Jeremy was all set with his fishing loot...his favorite part being the totally obnoxious hat!However, Leah thought the hat looked much better on her...I have to tend to agree with her! SHe looks so cute in anything!Dad was so excited about his reed diffuser he brought it right down to his bathroom and got it all set up! ;)Grandma Norma and Kenny walked away with a great movie, cozy blankets and a GPS from all their kids! Merry Christmas guys!Addy loved all the excitement! I think it energized her more than wore her out! Oh my happy girl!Auntie Meggie squeezes in some extra cuddle time with the Cade man who is definitely cashed out!Addyson and Gracie get some cuddle time of their own...one of Gracie's fav things to do with Addy-girlOh yes! The annual "seeester: photo shoot!!!!! Love these girls!Oh yeah! Sarah's chance to be in the middle...But I am back in no time at all and trying to cover their faces so you can see me better!Sarah didn't get the memo to open her mouth in some way ;)What is she doing now though?The classic! Sarah and I with the choke hold and Meg doing "the pose" in the front! LOVE IT!
And FINALLY, a normal pose...I am so blessed by these girls! And weirdly enough look forward to our "photo shoots"...they bring so much laughter and joy! Merry Christmas ladies!