And together we learn

A wonderful party

Ok, it's official, it's Christmas time. We just got back from the family Christmas party that epitomizes Christmas to me. Remember Thanksgiving and the 54 family members? Tonight we had our glorious party. My uncle has an 8500 square foot home. Yes, 8500. The thing is out of control huge. But it sure is perfect for a party like this!

After dinner, we all piled downstairs and began to sing. My grandma is an amazing musician. In fact, she has written hundreds of songs for children. She can play anything, in any key, so she makes the ideal accompanist. We sang carol after carol, all 4 generations of us, over 50 people. What an amazing feeling! That singing is something that I remember from every year of my life. The feeling of belonging, surrounded by these people who have known and loved me since I was born is undescribable.

When we get to Silent Night, the singing is over and it's time for the talent show. Everyone who wants to perform gets up and gets wildly applauded. My little girls sang a little song together. It's one written by my grandma, called 'I want to grow up to be Santa Claus.' They were so DANG cute!!! They were nervous, so didn't do the choreography we practicecd, but they did hold hands for moral support. So cute!!! And of course, I'm still having problems with my camera's memory card, so I don't have pictures.

My sweet aunt Janae is handicapped with cerebral palsy. She wanted her own couple of minutes in the limelight, so she was wheeled into the center of the room and sang, of all things, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Everyone joined in for the "Five Gooooooold Rings, badum dum dum", ala John Denver and the Muppets. Awesome.

All the cousins exchange presents (Calvin got a little football, so he was happy for the rest of the night), then my sweet Nana gives something to everyone. With 34 grandkids, 6 greats, and 9 kids, that is a LOT of shopping. She gave these huge baskets of fruit and a honey baked ham to all the married families. So wonderful!!

Such a great party! I wish I could capture the love and the fun and share it with all those who are lonely at Christmas. Families are such a blessing.

Oh, and today I made these with my girlies for them to give out to their friends. It was such a fun project, easy, and the girls loved it. We made a couple of extra pens for them because they loved them much. What a great day.

Edited to add: here's the link for the felt pen craft.

Labels: family, holidays

posted by Becca at 9:52 PM