the actual festivities of christmas and family gatherings began with us hosting chris’s side of the family first. it was a fun, and possibly overly stimulating time for one little toddler boy… and maybe all the rest of us too. 

opening presents with grandpa barker… and little M with his “leprechaun” face.  don’t know where that comes from. 

with grandma & grandpa ross

we had our own little family christmas time of reading the christmas story and opening presents. 

and then it was on to kc for some crazy, hectic fun-filled time with my family. 

several rounds of settlers, ticket to ride, and dutch blitz were played by all…  {and pay no attention to the brother on the left, he always looks that scary}.  love you pete man. 

the inevitable craziness of family gift-opening time… 

 

surprisingly… i think it only took us 3 hours to get through all the presents this year {hint of sarcasm}. and we had fewer to open this year too, go figure.  oh well.  i’m just grateful that we could all be together again this year.  with 10 kids and several of us spread around the country, there’s no telling how many more years we’ll be able to gather like this.  so, i’m grateful.  hecticness and all. 

we even attempted to take a family pic.  almost everyone made the cut {minus one spouse and 4 grandkids}. and yep, that’s a baby bump you see… me at 21 weeks pregnant. 

in our spare time, i was assigned the role as stand-in pitcher for little M’s batting practices.

seriously.  he absolutely loved his new ball and bat and was continually wanting someone to throw the ball for him. and believe it or not, while i tried to get him to hit the ball on his right side, he seems to both bat and throw ball primarily on his left.  could we have a lefty in the family?  not sure yet, might be too early to tell. 

our last highlight in kc was a little trip to union station to see the trains with mema and grandpa.  

little M even had a chance to take a ride on one of the trains…

he had a smile on his face for about 2 seconds.  the rest of the time, he looked like he was either bored out of his mind or possibly on the verge of crying…

looking at the train models with mema… 

it was a special time. a chance to have mema and grandpa all to ourselves.  and we snapped a little family picture too. 

hope you all had a very blessed christmas with family and friends. and happy new year!!