I love Christmas time!

We had such a good Christmas this year, even with the uncertainty of not having a job. The holidays are just a special time. I made a decision a couple years ago that I wanted to always spend Christmas day in my own home. The kids are getting older and I wanted to make sure we have our own traditions. However, I love family at Christmas time and would not want to miss seeing all of them too! This year we had the best of it all! Christmas day we were in our home and enjoyed being our little family. Of course there were plenty of presents and the kids enjoyed it all. Santa even made it to our house and brought us a Wii. We enjoyed spending our morning playing as a family on the Wii. Then we had an extra Santa surprise with Wii rockband! Megan loves the drums and Katelyn loves the microphone...I should have guessed.

Christmas lunch was so much fun! We went to Chris' grandparents house and were completely surprised that the Utah family crowd were all there! We didn't expect them until Saturday, but they decided to do Christmas early in Utah and then come surprise us in AZ. It worked ! We were all very pleasantly surprised. We had another amazing spread of food and then enjoyed opening presents under grandma and grandpa's tree (Christmas take 2).

The party wasn't done there. We then traveled to Chris' parent's house for Christmas take 3. All of the kids opened their presents first. I don't know if I have ever seen so many presents under one tree, but I guess by the shear number of kids there are now in the family, it's just going to look like a lot. Once the kids were done, they were excused to the game room to watch a new movie so that the big kids could have their turn opening presents. We were all thoroughly spoiled this year. We then presented the Partridge parents with their present which was a home movie made by all the kids about our last Disneyland trip. These videos keep getting better and better. Chris works really hard on these with a lot of input from his siblings and they just improve each time. I think everyone enjoyed this one.

Saturday, we met again at Chris' parent's house for the kids gift exchange. Each year the siblings and spouses draw names and all the little kids draw names. When we arrived at the house, we found that the Christmas tree had been refilled. I guess it just didn't fit all the first time. :) So, I guess this is Christmas take 4. It was so fun to be able to spend the day with Chris' family. We thought the UT crew were travelling this day and that we wouldn't see them until late evening. What a fun surprise.

Sunday, my little family took the journey to my parent's house for Christmas. I have to admit, that that drive was not so fun. We left just after church and a normally 6 hour drive took us a little over 8 hours! We were stopped in Wikiup because of a car accident that involved a car fire. Next, Megan (who was probably starting to catch my cold) threw up just outside Chloride.  Then it took us an hour and a half to go through the check point at the Hoover Dam. Wow. And to top it all off, the cold I mentioned was a huge head cold where not even medicine was helping me to breathe. It was so good to make it to my mom and dad's house! We had such a good vacation there. My sister and her kids were already there along with my Grandma McFarlane. It was so nice to be able to visit with them for the week.

Monday was our official Chesnik Christmas for family night. We first went to Josh and Kristin's for dinner and exchanged our gifts. This would be Christmas take 5. Kristin found the most adorable Sunday dresses for the girls that had a matching doll dress. The girls loved it! Also, Adam had the most handsome Sunday outfit with a vest and tie. Everyone matched! We then went back to my parents house that night for Christmas take 6, the final take. We are so blessed! Again, there were amazing gifts that everyone loved. Thank you family!!

Tuesday evening we took grandkids pictures for my parents. Everyone was in their new Sunday outfits provided by Kristin. We did have an appointment for a picture studio, but they cancelled on us. We decided with that many kids and so many small ones, we would just take our own pictures and I think they turned out really nice. Adam was having a rough night, so he screamed through most of them, but we even got a few of those without screams. There was a request made that my mom and dad take some pictures with the grandkids. Not my mom's favorite activity (it's up there with going to the dentist...nope, she might like the dentist more) but she was a good sport. In the end, we got a good new picture of just my parents. What a handsome couple!

My Christmas present to my parents was to paint their bedroom dresser. It doesn't sound like much but it was a huge deal for them. This is a dresser that was my dad's when he was a teenager that my parents have always had. It was green. Green, antiqued, green, old, and yes, green. I remember as a small child trying to paint some of it with my pink fingernail polish. That mark was still there. But, this dresser is now brown! I wish we had gotten a before and after photo. It was a lot of work, but completely worth it.

The rest of the week was spent visiting and relaxing. The cold that I started with moved to my kids. So, we spent most of the trip on medicine. In fact, one night I slept in the chair holding Adam so he could breathe better sitting up (me too!). Even with the rough colds, we enjoyed our Christmas time. Then the New Year started out right, with a drive back home that was uneventful and took a little under 6 hours! Happy New Year!

Here's our movie of the season. Apparently we were too busy chasing kids, so I have no pictures of the Partridge festivities...we still love you so much!