Christmas Part Three

On Christmas eve we headed to Central Arkansas to spend time with Phillip's family. This year his parents rented rooms for the whole family at a beautiful cabin on Mt Magazine. We had an absolute blast! And such a relaxing time for the women since there wasn't any cooking and cleaning for all 19 of us.





My in-laws had a suite so we were all able to hang out together in there. We stayed up late playing cards while the babies slept temporarily in the bedroom area and the bigger kids watched movies. After each family gathering I go home wondering if all other families use each other as the butt of all the jokes. It never fails, every year someone does something and it becomes the joke of the weekend. Needless to say, we always laugh until we cry!


Opening gifts with 19 people in a little sitting area was absolute chaos! There was wrapping paper and boxes everywhere, SO much fun! This was round three for Aubrey and she totally knew what was going on. She didn't mess with a single gift under the tree this year, probably because she didn't know what to do with them, but by Christmas morning she was digging in!


Ashlyn had a blast playing with her cousins. The older ones are always so sweet to the younger ones and I think even enjoy mothering them. They all especially enjoyed the indoor pool! They thought it was awesome being able to swim in the middle of winter! The first day I believe they forgot to heat the pool properly so Aubrey and I didn't stay in for long. Ashlyn was shaking so hard I thought she was going to fall over but tried to stick it out as long as possible.


Both Phillip and his brother play the guitar. The past couple months Phillip has been teaching our second oldest nephew to play the guitar via Skype. So, the guys brought their guitars and we enjoyed singing carols together. Benjamin had been working on the carols for a couple months and was thrilled to play along. He did such a good job, it was neat to watch him play with his uncles!


Benjamin turned one a couple days before Phillip and I got married almost 10 years ago. It hurts my heart to see how big he is getting!


I am so blessed to have married into this family. I loved Phillip's family almost as much as I loved him when we married. I can't describe the feeling of being loved by your husbands family like you are by your own family, I'm so grateful!