We took advantage of Doug's looong break (student life= fake life) and spent most of it at my parents' house in Alabama. We drove down and were soon joined by my four sisters and their families. All in all, there were 27 people in one house. Epic.
Our Christmas was merry and bright... and southern. We ate okra and bbq, one family slept in a trailer in the driveway, the guys played a lot of paintball on my parents' lot, and Doug wore his camo pants to Wal-Mart. All we lacked were some mullets and Nascar.
Really, it was a blast. The weather was mild so we got to play outside a lot. My parents set up a zip line (yes! a zip line!) and created a Survivor game for us (it's becoming a yearly tradition, and it's competitive and INTENSE). We baked, played games, watched movies, gave gifts, and loved our time together.
It was so fun celebrating Addy's first Christmas. She was smothered in love as the smallest (uh, youngest... maybe not smallest) cousin, and she loved watching the chaos around her. She fought an ear/sinus infection right before Christmas, but she was still her darling, happy self.
And now... a ridiculous number of photos:
Little girl cousins in matching shirts
(our family is so big we often went to my parents' church down the street to play in the gym)
Pulling Stace up to start her zipping
Headed to church
The reluctant baby Jesus in the family pageant
Mary, angels, animals, and a babushka (?) surrounding her in love
Christmas Eve
We loved FINALLY getting all five of these baby girl cousins together
Christmas morning
Since we came early and stayed late, Addy scored some one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa.
She kills me... love that face!
We proved again and again that "Just Dance for Kids" on the Wii is NOT just for kids
Poor little Harry Potter sleeping in our closet
Thanks again, Dunlop fam, for a fabulous Christmas!
11 comments:
Jackie, we had the SAME Christmas as you! Minus the babushka and the okra. Oh, and the zipline-- we need one of those for next Christmas. Cole got the closet too, these poor babies.
We'll have to try out Survivor too-- that sounds like fun. Did you survive the game?
PS. Was it possible for you guys to get into any restaurant all together? We kept striking out with every reservation as soon as we mentioned it was a group of 23! Our big event of the week was to see Tangled, but it was BONKERS getting so many people all in the same place at the same time! Anyway, just curious if you guys had the same experience with the big group.
Man that was fun times! I wish we had counted how many jugs of milk we went through! I am still shocked at the amount of food we went through! It's got to be some kind of record!
Loved hanging with you guys! Addylicious was a joy! My kids are still talking about those cheeks and that smile! Thanks for a great Christmas!
when we took our summer trip this year we put story in a pack&play in our closet too. :)
i think our daughters have very similar wardrobes (at least jammies). thank you carters!
Oh my gosh can I come to your house for Christmas next week? A survivor game? A zip line? that's so sweet! You have awesome parents. Addy is as cute as ever! oh..and I LOVE Just dance for kids...so fun!
We missed you guys!
I can see you had an awesome Christmas break! What a fun family you have. Addy is so lucky to have so many cousins.
Can't wait to hear more about your trip..and hopefully we get to see Doug sport his camo pants! :)
That looks so awesome and blasty! I hope that the dads taught the small children how to shoot--that's the kind of stuff they do in Alabama, right?
i'm getting flashbacks of our 40 person smith family reunion. *breathe* it sounds like the dunlops know how to party though! not surprising. :) i can only imagine the good times you guys must have. :) i wish our family get-togethers were fun like that!
so fun. Hey, Ashlyn slept in our closet the entire year we lived there. We joked about when she would "come out of the closet." I want to know who made all the jammies
Sounds like it was an awesome Christmas Break! HOw fun! Addy is so cute in her Christmas hat :)
That looks like so much fun. I am totally jealous of the zip line. Sounds like a blast. I am in love with Addy's adorable Christmas dress. She also makes a great Harry Potter. Let's hear it for closets!
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