Our Christmas festivities began the weekend before Christmas at the "Aunts and Kids Party". Trav's Aunt Kathy and her friend Karen have the party every year. All of Trav's cousins are there and all of Karen's neices and nephews go too. Every year they put a Closed to Adults sign on their door (even though most of the "kids" are all grown up and some even have kids of their own). We also take a group picture and make a craft every year. After stuffing our faces on snacks and pizza we open the gifts Kathy and Karen got for us. This year I had to leave a little early to go the Atkinson Family Party with my dad. My dad's family is huge (17 kids all with kids of their own. Most the cousins have kids too) so it's pretty hectic. We draw names at the reunion in Sept. and bring a small gift for the person we drew. After dinner Santa passed out the presents. We tried to sing Christmas carols but we were only able to sing the first verse of every song even though we all had copies of the words. It's hard to keep that many people focused. It was very entertaining though.
Christmas Eve and day are very busy for us and involve a ton of driving back and forth to different parties. Even though it's crazy and hectic we are determined to make it to every party. Our first party on Christmas Eve was at Trav's Grandma Janice's house. The tradition on this side of the family is that everyone gives the cousins under 18 and the great grand children presents. There are four little girls on this side of the family which makes it so fun to watch the present opening. They always get so excited. This year there was a new addition to the family. Trav's cousin Dustin's wife had a little boy right before Thanksgiving. It was fun to hold little Devin. After the kids are done opening their presents the adults play a game and pass around generic gifts. It's always entertaining trying to keep up the story and pass your present the right way. It's also fun to see what you got. I got two tickets to a Jazz game and Trav got a gift card to Texas Roadhouse. Trav's grandma also gave us a gift card to Applebees so we already have a couple of dates planned.
Travis and Cody make stupid faces in every picture I ever take of them. I was this taking picture when they weren't looking hoping I'd get one with normal faces. Unfortunately they make funny faces even when they don't know their picture is being taken.
Here are the little girls opening presents. I'm so glad that there are little kids on this side of the family. They make it so fun.
Trav's cousin Dustin's little girl Bre showing me her new puppy. It barked and whined and everything.
Kat got some new cool boots.
Trav's cousin Alisha's little girl Ashlyn showing me her new doll. When you touched the dolls right arm to a part on the body the baby would tell you what it was and when you did the same thing with the left hand it told you in Spanish.
Here's Trav's cousin Dustin and his little girl Kate and Alisha's older daughter Alexis trying to figure out the ATM machine piggy bank Kate got.
Here are most of the cousins. From left to right: Alisha, Cole, Katlin, Cody, and Travis.
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