continuing celebration...

On Saturday we had more Christmas celebration with our families that travel to PA from VA and MD. Tradition filled activities for the day, it seems *our* family is very tradition driven ~ but we love it and we enjoy the traditions that we have incorporated into the *family together* time!

One of the first stops for the day is always the Country Cupboard Restaurant for a dinner with my step-mother, grandma, great-grandma (all the same person), and the members of the family that are local, from MD and VA...(are you confused)? A very kind and willing passerby agreed to take this picture of our group, and quickly found himself with 4 cameras in his hands to take our group picture! He was very kind and his wife and children smiled with him as he took the pictures ~~ the world does have very kind people in it, watch for them!

With the MD portion of the family (that were able to make the trip) on their way back to MD, the remaining members including the VA part of the family go to the home of our son and his family for more *fun*!
Doing something new this year with *our* family gift exchange was fun and brought on laughter and challenges. It is becoming more difficult buying for the older kids (6 of them)and the adults really do not need *stuff*! So we decided this year that we would do a "gift card" exchange. Each of us were to purchase a gift card in the amount of $25, wrap it and bring for exchanging! Very cool idea doing this, and so much easier then stressing over what to buy folks! This is a picture of the gifts (cards) on the bench and waiting for the selections to begin.

We each had a number and selected our gift as per our number, if you wished to keep what you selected you could ~~ BUT ~~ someone could swap for your gift and you had to select another ~~ do you get the idea of what we did? Someone should explain to my hubby that *Bath and Body Works* really is a good place to shop! That one may need to be *re-gifted* LOL!

(a picture of the six teens in the family (cousins) they are so much fun, and just have the BEST time together)


(son and his family)


(daughter and her family)


Thank you family for a beautiful and joyous Christmas!