Family Party in Alabama - Christmas Day at the beach

As far as I know everyone slept well during the big sleep over at my house.  I'm so glad we did that because in the morning all we had to do was wait for everyone to wake up.  It was nice that we didn't have to wait for people to drive over to the house.  

Since we had 22 people in the house we knew it would be utter chaos if everyone opened every Christmas gift that day.  I'd told everyone to plan on celebrating Christmas with their own small family before or after the big family get together.  Brandon and I had celebrated Christmas with the kids the Friday before, Emily and David's family had done it the Saturday before, and Lindsey planned on celebrating when they got back home.  

But of course it wouldn't be Christmas Day without some presents.  We'd decided to do a gift exchange between family members and also give the kids one more present from Santa.  I'd assigned each adults to give another adult a present, and each kid to give another kid a present.  I'd also assigned each family to give another family a present.  Everyone had fun picking out their present for the person they were assigned to.  My mom said it was so nice to only have to worry about three presents.   

We took turns opening presents and admiring what everyone got.  It was especially cute to see the kids give gifts to each other.

Then we had pancakes and German pancakes for breakfast.

When I was growing up Christmas Day was always a difficult day for my family.  There was just so much build up to the actual day, but after the presents were over we never really knew what to do.  Everyone seemed to have different ideas for what they day should be like.  Should it be a spiritual day? A service day? A lazy day? A family day? Usually everyone just got mad at each other.  Over the years our family rule for Christmas Day evolved into, "If someone is bothering you, chances are you are bothering them." Which basically meant everyone should just mind their own business and do what they felt was best on Christmas Day.

Obviously, we didn't want that attitude around during our first Christmas all together in 6 years.  So when I proposed that Christmas Day would be a good day to go to Panama City Beach everyone agreed.  We also decided it would be fun to stay the night in hotels down there.

As luck would have it, the rain that had been soaking the area since everyone arrived on Monday was scheduled to clear up on Christmas Day.  We were all looking forward to playing outside in the sunshine. (Seriously, it was starting to feel like we were characters in the short story All Summer in a Day.)

So after breakfast everyone started to pack their stuff for the trip to Panama City Beach.  Emily's family and my parents would come back to my house the next day.  But Lindsey's family and Billy, Becca, Hillary, and Joe were all planning to leave for Houston after we were done at the hotels.

John was actually going back to Houston this day.  He had to work in the evening so he was flying home from the airport in Panama City Beach.  We were all sad that he had to go, but we were glad that he'd been able to make it to this much of the get together.  At first we hadn't thought his work schedule would allow him so much time off at Christmas.

So we said good bye to John.  He left with Lindsey, Ani, Knoxx, and Rocklond.  They also took Asher and Hillary and Joe along with them.

Brandon and I were hurrying to pack our stuff. We asked Charlotte and Lydia to find the clothes they wanted.  Lydia kept trying to pack 5 pairs of everything.  Brandon kept trying to explain that we were only going to be away from home for one night.  But it wasn't getting through to Lydia.  Earlier my mom had been complementing Brandon on all the cooking he'd done this week.  Brandon came out of Lydia's room and told my mom, "Cooking is easy for me.  Helping a 5 year old pack makes me want to tear my hair out."

I had been battling a cold all week and this day it was really getting to me.  So it seemed like I was packing in a fog.  But with Brandon around to help we were able to get all our clothes packed, all the food packed, and we even remembered to bring blankets for us to sit on at the beach.

I told everyone that we should plan to meet up at the County Pier at Panama City Beach.  This pier has the best parking lot and it has bathrooms.  Then we all got in our cars and started driving the 90 miles down to the beach.

Everyone did make it to the beach and soon we were all playing on the beautiful white sands.

The day was still a little overcast.  But the air was warm.

My parents loved being at the beach.  My dad had retired from work the week before and now he was relaxing on a beach.

Here's Charlotte playing on the beach.  My siblings are out in the water behind her.

Here's everyone playing in the water. I'd forgot to take my contacts out so I didn't go into the waves with everyone else.  I probably wouldn't have anyway.

Everyone was so happy with the beach.  We all agreed that this was the best way to have a white Christmas.

At first Derrick wasn't too happy about being at the beach.  He didn't want to wear his swimming suit and all he wanted to do was sit with me.  But gradually he warmed up to the whole thing.  My mom asked if there was anything she could do to help and I explained, "He just has to hate it for an hour.  Then he gets used to it and decides he likes it."

A few minutes later he was happy enough that we went back to the car and got our swimming suits.  I changed into mine in the bathroom.  I have a new swimming suit cover up which I just love.

The time at the beach was so much fun.  Charlotte made friends with a little girl whose parents happened to have lived in Utah for a while.  Brandon and I talked to them for a little bit and we thought it was a crazy coincidence.  Veronica ran around and jumped around a lot.  For a while she was even licking the sand.

Brandon and I had brought some hot dogs and our little camp stove.  We got that going and cooked hot dogs for everyone.  (You can barely see the stove in front of Brandon in this picture.)  We'd also brought things for ham sandwiches.  (BTW everyone had paid us money for food for the trip so it's not like we were supplying all this ourselves.)

Derrick finally came around to liking the beach.  He would run into the water and then back out.

David was in charge of our hotel reservations so we went to go take care of getting us checked in.  While he was gone we took a group photo on the beach.  I'm just going to say that no matter what happens next Christmas it's going to pale in comparison to this day.

David had booked us a night at a Marriott Resort over in the Bay part of Panama City Beach.  He'd paid for it with points he'd earned through credit card purchases so it actually cost him nothing.  (David's really good at these kinds of travel hacks and at the beginning of the year he and Emily were able to go on a week long trip to the Mexican Riviara for under $1000.  You can read all about how they did that over on their blog.)

Our room was so nice.  It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  Plus a living room area a dining room area and a kitchen.  There was even a screened in porch.  Emily had it figured out so that my mom and dad would have one bedroom.  My family got the other bedroom because it had a queen size bed and a fold out couch.  Lindsey's family got the living room with the fold out couch in there.  Emily and David and Billy and Becca actually stayed in another hotel that David booked with another card.  This one was on the beach.  We didn't really know where Hillary and Joe would be staying and the fact that they wanted to spend as much time together but that they weren't married kept making it difficult to find a place for them.  Finally we decided to just make a little "room" for Joe in the dining room area of the big hotel and a "room" for Hillary on the other side of the living room.

This isn't the best picture of our room, but you get the idea.

Anyway, so we all went to the big hotel first because it had to kitchen and living room area so we'd all be able to hang out.  It turned out to also have a really great pool.  At first I didn't thing anyone in my family would want to swim again so I gave all the kids a bath and changed them into dry clothes.  But before long the twins were begging Brandon to take them to the pool.  So it was back into swimming suits.  Derrick and Veronica weren't too interested at leaving the room at first.  But later I took them down to the pool too.

The water was heated so we were able to play in it even though it was getting dark.  Emily told me that she thought this water was warmer than my parents apartment pool had been in July.  She was right.

Derrick kept saying things like "Fun Day" and "Happy."  He loved that calm water a lot better than the ocean.  My mom came down and sat by the pool and talked to me while I playing in the water with the kids.

Someone called down that pizza had arrived so we went upstairs and had pizza with everyone.

I'd also made french fries and chili for everyone to eat while we waited for the pizza.

Emily and co went to their hotel and everyone started settling down at ours.  Brandon and I put the kids to bed in our couch bed and then we went for a walk on the golf course that surrounded the resort. It was very pretty.  The full moon made everything look really bright.

When we got back into the hotel Lindsey's family was watching Honey I Shrunk the kids.  Lydia had woken up so Brandon and I turned the movie on in our room and watched it with Lydia.  I fell asleep before it was over.  At some point during the night Charlotte came into our bed too.  Brandon and I were sandwiched on one side of the bed with the girls on the other.  Then in the morning Derrick climbed in bed on the six inches next to me.  So I guess we didn't need that fold out couch after all.

We'd brought the rest of the cereal and milk for everyone to eat.  But Lindsey decided to run to Walmart and buy muffins, fruit, and yogurt to make parfaits.  She was planning to start driving back to Houston later that day and so she wanted a good breakfast and also some food for the road.

The pool area opened again at 8:00 and my kids wanted to go swimming again so it was back into the swimming suits and down to the pool.

Lindsey and her kids came down later.

We all had a lot of fun in that water.

This place was so pretty.  I'm so glad we had a chance to stay here.

All too soon it was time to start cleaning up and getting ready to check out.  The kids sat and watched TV with Grandpa while we got things organized.

It will be a long time before we can take a picture like this again.

Emily's family arrived from their hotel.  I'd been worried that they'd been stuck at some awful hotel while we enjoyed this nice one.  But they assured me that theirs had been very nice too.  They'd been able to walk along the ocean in the evening and in the morning they'd all gone swimming at the pool there.

David took all the keys back to the office and we had to say goodbye to the nice room.  But we didn't have to leave the resort just yet. We all went down to the courtyard with the pool and the kids played with the little golf stuff there.

They also played with on a pirate ship shaped playground.  Lindsey was anxious to get on the road so she had us all take one last group picture and then we all went to her car to say good bye.

It was sad watching her car pull away with Billy, Becca, Hillary, Joe, Ani, Rocklond, and Knoxx in it.  Usually I know when I'll see Lindsey again, but this time I had no idea when we'll get together again.

Emily and David wanted to stay and go swimming at this hotel so they went' back to the pool.  My parents went with them.  Our kids were done with the water so Brandon and I decided to just go home.  (We are spoiled and can come back to Panama City Beach anytime we want to.)

We drove back home and actually went to Enterprise first.  We were hoping to find a large pre-lit Christmas Tree for a good deal.  We checked Lowes and Walmart but the only trees we could find were the same size as the tree we already have.  So no new tree this year.

We bought some more food and went home and made quesadillas.  My parents showed up just as the quesadillas were done.  Later Emily and David and kids came back too.

I was feeling the strain of being around people for almost a week (even with my family I need my space after a while) so I disappeared into my room for several hours and read commentary on the new Star Wars movie on whatculture.com.  After recharging my social batteries I was able to come out and enjoy the rest of the visit with everyone.

My parents and Emily's family stayed until Monday.  We had a good time with them.  We watched Mary Poppins (Sorry I have to ask, what is up with that movie?  I really want to know the backstory to how Mary and Burt know each other and why Mary seems so reluctant to embrace the magical side of her personality.) We went to church together on Sunday, and we had good times talking together.

But really the rest of the visit was nothing compared to the whirlwind of the days that the family was all together.  I didn't even take any more pictures after that last group photo.

After it was all over Brandon asked me, "what present did you get in the gift exchange?"   It turns out that I didn't get one.  There'd been some confusion when I added Joe at the last minute and so Brandon had ended up with two gifts and I didn't get one.  I told Brandon, "I don't care about gifts anyway.  I love spending time with people.  Having my whole family here was my gift."  

And as sappy and corny as that sounds it's the truth.

Family Party In Alabama - Christmas Eve Traditions

I'm going to blog about Christmas Eve in a second.  But first we have to go back in time a little bit and look at pictures from Tuesday December 22.  This is the day we took family pictures and then had lunch at the cabins where my sisters were staying.  

My dad took these pictures at the cabin and I wanted to show them to you.  This is what the kitchen/living room area looked like.  As you can see, cabin is not a good word to describe this place.  These were more like vacation homes. (And sorry, but I just have to point out how good I look from behind in this picture.  Losing weight is so worth it for pictures like this.)

 Here's Derrick looking all cute.

 And Brandon looking pretty cute too. You kind of can see it in this picture, but there is a picture with lots of different helicopters on the wall.  That was the funny thing about these cabins, they were decorated with lots of army aviation memorabilia.

 Here's the living room area.

 And the screened in porch.

 And the front porch.

This wont apply to most of you, but if you are ever in Alabama and have a military ID you can reserve these cabins from the Fort Rucker MWR.  The two bedroom cabins are only $80 a night which is a steal of a deal.

Okay now lets talk about Christmas Eve.  

First off I need to tell you something about my family.  We never really had a good Christmas Eve Tradition.  About the only consistent tradition we had was when my mom would bemoan our lack of good traditions.  She was a convert to the LDS church.  Her family had joined the church with her when she was 9, but they were mostly inactive by the time she was a teenager.  She would often imagine what life would be like if she was married to a faithful church member and raising her children in the gospel.  

So when her family just went to see a movie on Christmas Eve, she'd imagine that in her future family all her children would be dressed in matching red outfits and sit around the piano singing Christmas songs. Then everyone would read the Christmas Story in the Bible and be so touched by the spirit.  

Did that ever happen?  Not really.  Most of the time we'd watch a movie and my mom would wonder where she went wrong with all of us.  

Then nine years ago I was invited to Brandon's family's Norwegian Christmas Eve Party and my life has never been the same.  I've written about the Christmas Eve Parties a lot over the years.  But I know some of you are new this year so I'll sum it up for you.  Brandon's Dad's Dad is from Norway and so the family has always celebrated Christmas Eve with a big party full of traditional food.  You can read about a past party here. 

After I discovered Brandon's family's way of doing Christmas Eve I never spent Christmas Eve with my family again.  My family was always invited to the party and some years they'd join us and some years they didn't.  As my other siblings got older and got married they've moved away and started their own Christmas Traditions.  

So this would be the first Christmas Eve that we were all spending all together in ten years.  The last thing I wanted was for us to revert back to our old ways of doing nothing and then listening to my mom wish we had better traditions.    

I was hoping to plan some sort of family outing for the day, but the weather was not cooperating with that plan.  Over nine inches of rain had fallen overnight. There were flood warnings all over the place. There were severe weather warnings too. There'd even been a tornado warning for the area north of Fort Rucker.  So we'd be staying put for the day.  Which was fine anyway, because it seemed like everyone just wanted to hang out rather than go exploring.  

Even with all the rain we were happy with the weather.  It was hard to remember it was December when it was still 60 degrees outside. Emily and Hillary made up a little song, "Barefoot in Alabama on Christmas Eve."

This was the last day we had the cabins so my siblings took care of packing and checking out of those.  Then everyone showed up at my house for a day of fun.  We'd planned to have everyone sleep over at my house that night.  

I love this picture with all the shoes lined up by the front door.  Lots of shoes by the door means that something really fun is going on.

We started out with a pizza making competition. We were supposed to have pizza the day before, but then everyone started talking about how well they could make pizza.  So we moved it to today so we'd have more time for everyone to prefect their creations.  The pizzas were super good and disappeared within minutes.

I didn't want the whole day to be just about all the traditions that I've acquired over the past 9 years so I asked everyone to come up with at least one tradition that they wanted to share. Lindsey's tradition was that they always make ginger bread men.  Brandon had made the cookies the day before and so all we had to was put the frosting on them.

The kids really like that.  Veronica just wanted me to put frosting on her cookie and then she'd lick it off and ask for more.

Here's Charlotte decorating hers.

Asher's turned out pretty cute.

After the ginger bread men were done we all cleaned the house.  I had everyone pull a popsicle stick with a job written on it.  The house was clean in no time.  Then we got everything set up for a talent show.  

This is the tradition that my Mom and Dad wanted to share.  We would do this at my Grandma Mary Ann's house when I was a teenager.  I was surprised by how well all 22 of us fit in my living room.

My parents started out by singing Oh Come all Ye Faithful in Portuguese. Both of them have been studying hard to learn the language before their mission.  My dad still remembers it from when he was a missionary over 30 years ago, but my mom has been learning it for the first time.

Then it was my family's turn.  I said that my talent was putting together this whole visit. Brandon's talent was making lots of the yummy food that we'd all been eating. Our kids were the real stars of our family's part of the show.  Lydia got up and did some jumping tricks.

Then Charlotte did some.

Then I called out, "Derrick, do you want to do something?"  He yelled back with "Yes!" and ran in from the kitchen where he'd been playing with his trains.  He climbed up on the wicker basket/seat and did a flying leap off.  Then he ran back into the kitchen. I was so surprised that he'd participated like that.

Veronica didn't care so it was Lindsey's turn next.  She showed us the manuscript for a book that she wrote. she also showed us a video she'd made with her boys.

Emily and David were next.  They sang a song together while David played the guitar.

Asher's talent was to show everyone how to play dreidel.

Veronica was acting super tired so I put her to bed and in the process missed Bridger and Tutus's talents.

Billy said that his talent was getting married to Becca.  But then someone brought up a personal essay that Billy had written for his English Class.  So we talked Becca into reading us Billy's essay titled "The Coldness."  It was all about the unheated room that he had to sleep in as a kid.  We all had similar experiences since my parent's house was notoriously cold. We all laughed super hard at Billy's descriptions of learning to live with the cold.

Hillary had filmed herself making sauces at work (she's a saucier at a banquet kitchen now.) And Joe played the piano.

The talent show ended with all of us singing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer.

As soon as the talent show ended Brandon and Hillary went to work in the kitchen.  I went to work finding all of our pretty serving dishes.  I love fancy stuff, but most of it has been boxed up due to little children. But it's not Christmas without fancy dishes.

During all the hubbub Emily let Charlotte and Lydia sit by her and feel baby Hazel in her tummy.   I have the only girls on my side of the family so Charlotte and Lydia are looking forward to having a girl cousin.  They thought it was so funny to feel her move.  They weren't even three yet when I had Veronica so they barely remember feeling her in my tummy. And they have no memory of when I was pregnant with Derrick.  

Then it was time to eat.  I love having a big dinner on Christmas Eve.  We had a spiral cut ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing (that Hillary made from scratch) and rolls.

Everyone crowded around our big table in the garage.  When everyone was seated we went around the room and asked everyone what their favorite thing had been during the year.

It was so great to have everyone together.

After dinner we went back in the living room.  There was kind of a lull in the entertainment and Lindsey started interviewing everyone on what their goals were for the next year, the next 10 years, and what we would do if the sky was the limit.  This isn't the first time she's done this and usually I struggle to come up with anything.  Thanks to the kids an the Army I've been in survival mode for the past few years.  Usually I say that my goal is to get some goals. So I was really happy when I was able to say that I actually had some goals.  I told her that I want to get something published this year. (So now I have to go out and do that - EEK)  I still struggled with the 10 year and sky's the limit goal, but Lindsey complemented me on my progress.

Then it was time for Emily's tradition.  20 years ago we'd been at a family party at my Grandma Mary Ann's and my aunt Karen had us all sing the 12 days of Christmas.  Instead of the usual words we'd substituted in what we wanted for Christmas. The song ended up being really funny. My dad had filmed the whole thing and over the next few years we'd watch it over and over and over again.  We'd even show it to our friends.

Emily had shared the song game with her In-laws and they thought it was really fun.  So she wanted to do it again with us.  We all knew it was going to be fun, but I don't think we imagined how fun it would be.

Right off the bat Emily asked Hillary what she wanted for Christmas.  All week long we'd been avoiding talking to Hillary and Joe about the fact that they are probably getting married. Pretty much everyone knows it's going to happen, but since it's not official we all just avoided talking about it. So we were all a little surprised when Hillary replied with a little mumble, "I'd like an engagement ring."

Emily jumped right on that and started singing "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me - A diamond engagement ring."  After a four days of not talking about it, we all seemed excited at this opportunity to express our support for Joe to pop the question to Hillary.  With every verse we sang, "And a diamond engagement ring" with more gusto.

By the end this is what the song sounded like.
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:
12 offers on the house (Emily and David)
11 Black hawks (Me and Brandon)
10 PS4's (John)
9 iphones (Ani)
8 French Horns (Billy)
7 Santa Claus' (Charlotte)
6 Golden Lizards (Asher)
5 Puppies (Rocklond)
4 Cardboard Castles (Lydia)
3 Fighting clothes (Bridger)
2 Missionary suits (Mom and Dad)
1 And A DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RING!!!

We all laughed for a long time and David said, "you can all send your apology letters to Joe now."

For the past several nights Brandon and I (but mostly Brandon) had been making treats for this evening.  Everyone had been asking me when they would finally get to eat those, and I kept telling them they were for Christmas Eve. We brought out the card table and put the treats on to it.  As always the big hit was the Rice Creme. But everything else was good too.

The kids all enjoyed the treats.

Brandon and I put on a funny little Christmas movie about a turtle that Brandon made with his brother and friends in high school.  That reminded my siblings about all of our crazy movies they made as kids.  I happened to have a copy of some of them.  Billy found it and put it on.  The movies are terribly embarrassing, but everyone had a good time laughing at themselves.  (I am so glad I'm not on any of those videos.)

Then we moved the Christmas Tree out into the middle of the room for Brandon's tradition.  We all held hands and walked around the tree singing Christmas Carols.

My favorite was when we sang "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas"  I'd been looking forward to this moment all month.  We sang:

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.

Brandon led us all through the Norwegian Song about getting the house and clothes ready for Christmas.  He's assumed the roll of the Dad who tries to teach the song and it's meaning to all the guests but no one really cares what he's saying.  He was the only one singing anything close to the correct lyrics while the rest of us joined me in singing gibberish.  (Maybe I should have a goal to actually learn the lyrics to the song this year.)

As far as my mom knew this was the end of the party, but we all had one last surprise in store for her.  Everyone hurried to change into pajamas and then meet back in the living room.  When my mom came out of the guestroom Emily started playing the piano and the rest of us sang Christmas Bells are Ringing.  When we were done I told my mom, "We are finally fulfilling your dream of all us us singing Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve."  We'd even thought about having matching pajamas, but decided that was just too complicated to pull off.

My mom sat down and we all sang Christmas carols for a long time.  There was a really special spirit in the room.  We didn't want it to stop so when we were done with carols we decided to do a spontaneous reenactment of the nativity scene.

It was like we had planned it all along. Within seconds everyone had decided which parts they would play and even thrown together costumes. I couldn't help filming it. (Sorry it's so rough and dark.)

Finally it was time to start settling down.  Everyone was going to sleep over at my house.  We figured we could all squish in for one night.  It worked out that each family would share a room. This was actually another tradition of sorts.  When I was growing up my family did have one true Christmas Tradition.  It dated back to when I was little.  We'd lived in a one bedroom house and my parents had slept in the bedroom while Lindsey, Emily and I shared a couch bed in the living room.  On Christmas Eve we'd sleep in my parent's room so that we wouldn't see Santa Claus when he came to deliver presents in the living room. 

Even after we moved to a house with more bedrooms we still continued our tradition of sleeping in my parents room on Christmas Eve.  As we got older we would sleep in our own rooms, but meet in their room before going into the living room to open presents. 

So having each family sleep together in one room was a call back to those days when we were little and would sleep in our parents room on Christmas Eve.

I'd figured out sleeping arrangements earlier. My parents still had the guest room and Hillary slept on their floor.  Lindsey's family slept in Charlotte and Lydia's room.  They had an air mattress that I'd borrowed from a friend.  The boys shared one bunk and Ani got the other.   Emily and David were in Derrick and Veronica's room.  They'd brought some little mattresses to sleep on.  Billy and Becca slept on the futon in the toyroom and Joe got the living room couch. 

All my kids were excited to sleep on the floor in my room.  We usually have one or two of them join us in our bed every night anyway so they were pretty excited to start out in our room.  Honestly I've told my mom to never feel bad that we had a one bedroom house or that I slept on the floor/couchbed when I was little.  My kids have their own rooms and beds and I still find them asleep on the floor, or on the living room floor, or in another bed half the time. 

We knew it'd be pretty hard to put the kids to bed after all the sugar and excitement so we turned on the Santa Clause for everyone to watch if they wanted to.  That move is deceptively boring.  Sure there is some fun Santa stuff that goes on, but a lot of it is full of adults talking. We thought it would be a good one to get the kids to fall asleep during.  Lindsey and Emily were both able to get their kids to go to sleep, but mine made it through the movie and were still running around at 11:00.  The only thing that got them to calm down was for me to lay down with them.  I think all five of us were asleep within 30 seconds of me laying down. 

About and hour later I moved into my bed and fell asleep for the rest of the night.  And I'd need that sleep because Christmas Day was going to be even more wonderful than Christmas Eve had been.