Family Christmas Party

Saturday we had our Smith family Christmas party. As always, it was a big success. Kristi so graciously hosts the entire clan for a shredded beef dinner with lots of yummy accompaniments. The cousins all draw names and do a gift exchange with each other. The older cousins all buy $15 gift cards and then play a dice game to trade and switch with each other. I didn't get any pictures of that this year. Lastly, we assign a family to be in charge of the program each year. It's supposed to bring some spirituality to the craziness. This year ViEtta was in charge, so she planned a beautiful program consisting of several musical numbers. She asked different members of the family to participate as well. At the end, she pulled out "bells" and gave each person one and then we rang them to different songs. The kids (and adults) really liked that part.

Instead of doing a gift exchange, the adults all do some kind of activity together. Tonight we are going to dinner and then to see the Forgotten Carols. I love it! I have it on DVD and have restrained myself from watching it this year since I'm getting to see it live this time. I'm really looking forward to that.

Bo and his cousin Jake dancing.

Whitley singing with Shyann

Kenzie, Dalin, Tyler and Amy all singing along

Brooklyn and Shyann getting some love.

Kelsey and Brooklyn

Katy didn't love the sing along as much as some did.

Ok, maybe a lot of the kids thought it was a little long. Too young to appreciate I guess.

This is me pretending to play along on the flute. I practiced and actually got it down pretty well. I didn't realize she was going to play the piano along with me so when that happened, I totally lost it. I couldn't keep my place for anything. Chelsey had a pretty funny video of me looking like I was playing, where you can see me asking her where we were now. It wasn't good. That disappeared when she dropped her phone in the toilet.

This is Katy pretending to play her flute. I thought that was too cute.

Chelsey and Whitley sang a song together. They left their music at home so they were kind of winging it. Still nice though.

Glade and Brooklyn did a really sweet duet together. She was a little quiet, but very nice.

Stephen and Bo doing exploding knuckles

Stephen ended the program with a solo. It was kind of rough, but he tried. Not really his range and it was a hard song to boot.

Younger cousins all waiting to open their gifts.

Katy got an easel made up of a white board and chalk board

Bo got a bag of rocks which totally confused him, but he grinned through the whole thing anyway. Then he got his real gift, a coloring set. He was so excited about that.

Rhett has been into the Lord of the Rings lately so he got the second movie of that series

Brooklyn got a messenger bag that came with iron ons to decorate it. She has been driving me crazy ever since. We finally got it done yesterday.

Dalin got a magic set which has been devoured by more children than him. Poor kid has no control. They all love that stuff.

We are very blessed to be surrounded by such great family.