Christmas at Jays

Every year we all gather at Jay's house to celebrate the Christmas holiday with Brent's family. 

Blake usually carves the turkey, which Annette makes. 

The last few turkeys Annette has made have been frozen solid to start. Jay said he pulled them out to defrost, but they were still frozen. 

Which has caused the turkey to be very juicy and fill the cooking bag with an over abundant amount of water. I meant to take photos of the creative draining process they had to come up with. No one could pick the turkey up out of the oven because of all the liquids.

Annette's face sums it up perfectly in this picture!

I  need to make this man an apron. He had a towel wrapped around him!

A picture of Brent and I.

Maxi took. (I cut out the plate of food Brent was holding, he didn't like it)

Annette pondering why the food is always ready before the people arrive!?

Uncle Brent and Charles. He was kind of unsure about Brent, until they started walking down the stairs.

Charles had a great affection for the Deer mounted on the stair wall. He giggled as he tried  touch its nose.

August looking very melancholy and holding onto the newer version of the Olson Christmas tree. Over the years the tree has been many things. I quite like this tree though. Soft lighting...

Charles did not cooperate in the family picture I tried to take.

Finally he looked at me!

August got Papa's hat, and walked around as Shadow tried to rip it off his head.

Finally it was time to eat. The rest of the family showed up while we were eating.

Charles and his pie faces...

Over the years the gang has shrunk some. A lot of the cousins have gotten married and moved away. Some years they make it...this was not one of those years.

I kept asking people to get together to take photos, but many of my pics did not turn out (sad face)...

The appointed Santas pass out the presents

The Red Gals! Annette and her wonderful Christmas sweater with Mum-Z and her bow.

We had a special visitor...

Shadow helped Santa deliver his sack full of goodies.

August got a quilt that Grandma made him!

Daddy got a traveling pillow and pillowcase!

Charles got a quilt too! He was playing in it right away.

Each year Jay gets the kids some form of toy that will lead to an epic battle. It is often a type of nerf toy. With protective gear. This year it was nerf guns with superhero masks!

Jordan had a very meticulously wrapped present and inside was a potato.

Shannon and Max...

I asked them to get together so I could take a picture and this is what I get!

While the boys dog pile each other...

We all tried to take photos with Santa. This was the 4 generations picture. It was my favorite becasue we tried really hard to keep Shadow and Mum-z's attention...

Kay and Judy look an awful lot alike in these photos...

I asked Santa to do our annual family picture. He was very gracious to stand there smiling while the boys tried to figure out how to all smile and look my way...

Then Charles had his turn on Santa's lap...he was very interested in the bells

He tried to put them over his head

Still wouldn't look up. So his mom took them away...

It kind of worked for a second...

But then he started reaching for them...jingle bells!

We also get into some pretty fun wrapping paper fights. We ball up our paper and throw it at each other. This year Shadow really got into it. She kept throwing paper at Brent and cracking up...

Justin is about to peg me right in the head in this one...While Max is handcuffing Bray

Santa took a picture with all his kids...

That is my husband. Life of the party (in his own special way)

August and Charles ended up together on the couch. August was playing a puzzle game on Shadow's tablet. Charles was playing with the voice scrambler.

Charles had fun handcuffing Uncle Brent...

Oh, and here is his staple in his head that he had gotten a few days earlier in a yoga ball incident...who knew yoga could be so dangerous...

We stayed as the family dwindled down.

 We were the last ones out of there! 

We drove straight home (3hrs...after a turkey dinner) Ugh...

I was glad that we were all able to really enjoy each other. I still find it hard to have actual conversations with anyone. 

Mainly because August is still so active and Jay's house is not entirely kid friendly. 

My focus this year was on these precious moments. Family together.

I keep realizing that my parents are actually getting "older". One of those things I used to correct myself in saying. I used to be able to reconcile that they were still young. Slowly realizing these Christmas times are numbered. I actually made myself quite emotional thinking about this. Let's just say I gave a lot more hugs and kisses this year.

This was our grand finale of Christmas activities!

We are very thankful for our family extended and otherwise.