Wednesday, January 7, 2009

.:Christmas 2008:.

Christmas this year was spent in Oregon. Reece and I flew up there a few days before Josh got there. Reece was so great on the plane! She did great at the airport, going through security, and then ended up sleeping in my arms the whole flight! I was so proud of her.

Once we got there, we spent time running errands and waiting for everyone else to get there! We had the whole family there this year! There was lots of Christmas fun, as well as wedding prep for Alli's wedding. The boys spent a lot of time playing MarioCart on the Wii, and a few people spent tons of time doing puzzles. The boys were also the official snow removers, and spent a lot of time outside shoveling and snow blowing the driveway. It snowed every day while we were there!

Christmas Eve was spent with two sets of missionaries, as well as my grandparents from Arizona! We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of ham, potatoes, rolls, durkey beans, and chocolate pies! Josh and I also made our peppermint cheesecake dessert, which was a hit! After dinner, we did the nativity, as we've done for so many years. It's turned into a reader's theater, with songs in between, and I think this is the first time in years we haven't all lost it laughing at some point during it! After that, we were graced with my grandpa's rendition of the Grinch! We've heard about it for years, but never been able to experience it. It was wonderful! The missionaries shared a message with us before they left, and then it was time to open our Christmas pj's and gift exchange gifts. Here is our little family on Christmas Eve.



Reece loves Santa!
All the girls got robes for our Christmas pj's this year. They are so cozy!

All the grandkids in their matching pj's! So cute!


The Grinch!

Christmas morning we woke up to see what Santa had left for all of us. As usual,. he was very good to us all! We took turns opening presents one by one - we did a couple of rounds before our traditional Christmas Day breakfast of bran muffins, peppered bacon, oranges, and juice. Delicious as usual! It took us a good amount of time to get through it all! There were 19 people opening presents!


Gramzee and PSTEW having a moment with Reece and Andi.


Reece with her stocking. Doesn't she look excited? :)


Daddy and Reece.


All of the stockings for the whole fam!


All of Santa's loot!


Carter and Gray having fun with all of their new toys!


Yep, I'm related to both of them. My handsome husband, and brother!


Cal, Andi, Carter, and Gray enjoying Christmas muffins!


Once Christmas was over, it was time for Alli and Nic's wedding! On Friday nite, we headed over to Medford to have a dinner with all of our family and all of Nic's family. It was a nice evening with good food!



Then Saturday morning was the wedding! Alli looked beautiful, of course! She is the last of us five kids to be married, and it was so neat to have all of us and our spouses in the sealing room with her. My grandpa sealed her and Nic - he has done all of us kids. It's such an incredibly neat thing to have our grandpa seal all of us. It was definitely a proud moment for our family.



Then it was back to Klamath to get things ready for the reception. We had it at our house, and were really worried about the turnout. My parents live on top of a mountain, and it was snowing like crazy! But people really surprised us, and we had an awesome turnout. It was fun to see people, and to just have the party part of their marriage. The house looked beautiful and the food was great. What more could you ask for?

The original Stewart five!


The whole fam!

Reece and Mommy. She looked so cute!


Gray and Carter - Handsome boys!


Sweet Reece. She was such a trooper with all of the madness around her!


Jefferson, Andi, Josh and Cal


Me and my hubby


The Stewart women (and Andrus, Phair, and Harmon! :) )


All the sibs with their spouses.


Daddy and Reece


It was a great trip, and we are so blessed to have such wonderful families to spend our time with. We are not sure when the next time is that we'll all be together, but hopefully it's not too long!