Christmas Day we spent with the Munyans in VA. It was a house full of people! 18 total  – 11 of Ben’s 14 siblings, us, his parents, and his brother’s wife and 2 kids! We got there by 10:30, I made German pancakes & bacon and we spent a couple hours opening presents! Everyone pretty much gets everyone a present so there were quite a few!

There were lots of thoughtful gifts, like the Grandma sweater and picture video Ben’s mom got, and this amazing box Ben made for me! He has gotten really good at wood carving! And I didn’t even know he was working on it until Christmas Eve! The flowers have seven petals (my lucky number!) and on top is the knot of love and knot of wisdom :D!

Everyone loved Ben’s adorable

nephew & niece and they got lots of costumes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course there were lots of silly presents     ;-). Jacob asked for matching pjs w Lauren and we couldn’t resist getting them… hopefully they actually wear them ;). Lots of people asked for Nutella… so Ben asked for a silly poster of Mona Lisa holding Nutella lol.

 

Then people relaxed, looked at phones, slept, played with toys, and made a delicious dinner.

 

The next day we went to Olive Garden with some of the Munyans and hung out some more. And Sarah, Rachel, & Jason came to visit me at work!

 

 

 

____

The weekend before Christmas I went to AZ (Ben stayed home 🙁 and worked and went to an interview for the SEC in DC!). I had lots of fun hanging out with family, hiking, and doing our traditional Mexican food & White Elephant game with my mom’s family, the Memmotts. This year we even added a pinata & the younger cousins dressed up for the nativity. And at the Memmott party, I got to meet my Grandma’s new husband (see pic below) and my cousin’s cute new baby girl!

I can’t believe Misty (we got Misty and Otter when I was 10) has made it to 15 and is still smiling! With my mom & Craig we did a name exchange and did a nice-ish white elephant game which was fun, and we didn’t have to worry about as many gifts :-).

     

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I ate way too much food and had lots of fun with family and friends!

PS For those of you who saw Ben’s video of Let it Go from last year’s Christmas post, I have another remake :D! I had an awesome work Christmas party – we had bay decorating contests, and my section did a Frozen theme and recorded a econ version “Let it Grow” (ie inflation).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other sections had some pretty good ones too: