Christmas Twenty-Ten

I am finally getting around to posting about our fabulous Christmas in Klamath. We truly did have such a wonderful time. It started the week before Christmas when my kids and I traveled to K town with my brother and sister and their families. It was possibly the longest trip ever, but my kids were rock stars and were so good the entire time (minus Taytum who whined quite a bit due to being sick, but who can blame her). We encountered some weather on the way, multiple stops for kiddos, and two flat tires in Bend; mine and my brother's. What are the chances?! But made it safe and sound on Saturday evening.
The next day the kids all got in their Christmas get-ups and looked quite dashing. Carter and his cousin Jay:
Reece, Remi, Taytum, and Andi:
The whole week was filled with fun things. We probably went grocery shopping every day. There is just not enough room in two fridges and three freezers to feed the 21 of us that were there! Plus we all just enjoyed getting out of the house.

On Tuesday night my mom put on a concert at the Ross Ragland Theater called "Sounds of the Season." She puts on a free Christmas concert at our local theater and plays tons of beautiful Christmas music and then we all serve cookies and hot wassail to everyone afterward. The people of the community love it (and her) and there were 500+ people in attendance this year! She is so incredibly talented!
Wednesday was my BIL Nic's birthday so my parents so graciously watched all nine of the grandkids (ages 4 and under mind you) so the grown ups could go bowling. We had a blast!
Every night during the week leading up to Christmas my parents did a Christmas story time with all nine of the grandkids up in the bonus room, no parents allowed. The kids thought they were something special! My parents would read a different Christmas story each night and hand out a little present to each of them. My favorite was the giant smurf stuffed animals each of them got.
My dear husband finally arrived on Thursday night just in time for all of our festivities to begin Friday morning. (A big thank you to my hubby for letting me come early and to my brothers and BIL's who took care of me; between the flat tire, chains on and off, getting stuck on my parent's mountain, watching my kids so I could go out with the girls.... you guys rock!)

Christmas Eve day began with popcorn for breakfast... true Stewart style! My parents rented out the theater for friends and family to see "Tangled." We had been wanting to see this movie since it first came out and we were not disappointed. Everyone got their own bag of popcorn and soda. I don't think I heard one peep out of one child the whole movie. My parents sat up in a row with all the grandkids, and Tay fell asleep on my lap, so it was a nice little break.
After the movie we came home and a special visitor showed up! Boy were the kids surprised!
Santa knew a little something about all of them, including what they had asked for for Christmas.
Taytum had just woken up from her nap and wasn't quite a fan...
All the grandkids (minus Jay) with Santa:
Taytum's face is priceless!
After Santa left we let the cousins do their gift exchange. This rug was sanity saving when it came to open presents. It kept the kids contained and we made them all sit on it any time they got to open a present.
Andi LOVES her dress that Calvin got her (or whoever it was from the Stewart family).
Here was our beautiful table for Christmas dinner, name place cards and all. Us girls had a fun time shopping for all the decorations. Christmas Eve dinner turned into quite the fiasco, hence no picture of us sitting at this lovely table. It was delicious and enjoyable, but kids just happened to not be super cooperative at that time.
After dinner were the traditional Christmas Eve gifts. My parents got each of the kids a book and of course, pajamas! My favorite!
After we were all in our Christmas pajamas, the kids did a flannel board nativity with my parents. It was so cute. They had practiced at Christmas story time the night before, so they were all well prepared.
My dad read the nativity story from the scriptures while the kids put up the appropriate pieces throughout the story.
After the kids were in bed, it was time for some grown up gift opening. We did our gift exchange and pajamas. I wish I had a picture of all the adults in our jammies. My mom made us all coordinating pajama pants with matching shirts. I love them!

Christmas morning was a riot! The kids loved every second of the day. It's safe to say that we were all spoiled rotten!

We hope everyone had an equally enjoyable Christmas. Happy New Year!