Christmas #1

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is our Stevenson Family Christmas party- my Mom's side of the fam. We have a party every year and I absolutely LOVE this party- it is the one time of year that all of us (most of the time) can get together. I look forward to this party all year long. My family is large, wonderful and very entertaining! Here is a look into our day-


PRESENTS! Since our family is so large we do our gift giving in a different kind of way- each person brings one gift and we play a "Chinese Auction" game. We have been doing this for a few years now and it is a very fun way to exchange gifts.

My cousin Alissa and her cutie-patootie son, Parker

My cousins Sonya, Amanda and my Aunt Dianan and Uncle John

For the gift giving game, my cousin, Amanda (above) made THE BEST gift- a scrap book of our entire family. It starts with pictures of my Grandma and Grandpa and then goes through each of their 6 children, their husbands/wives (my aunts and uncles) and their children (my cousins) and even their significant others/and children!! There was even an ultrasound pic of my little baby!  Of course- Grandma was the one who ended up with the gift and it was a HIT- almost everyone else wanted to steal the book (its part of the game!) BUT no one did- who could steal such a wonderful gift from Grandma!?

My cousin, Michael, his wonderful wife, Brianne, and their son, Brayden!

My cousin, Renee passed away from cancer last September. It was and still is one of the toughest things our family has ever gone through, Renee was an amazing, beautiful, 25 year old woman, and we were all so blessed to have her in our lives. To remember and honor her this Christmas, we lit and released a few Wish Lanterns. We all said hello, and let her know how much we wished she was with us. We said Merry Christmas and We Miss You as we watched the lanterns float up into the night sky. I absolutely loved that we did this.

My mom (who is sitting next to me) brought me some sparkling wild berry juice so that I could have some sort of festive drink! And YES I am drinking it from a wine glass!

My Aunt Sue and Uncle Gary moved out of state recently- so since they couldn't be with us we SKYPED them. I absolutely LOVE skype. It's so great to be able to SEE and HEAR your loved ones when they are far away.

Pretty much how all Christmas parties end right? Loungin' around, watching TV, relaxing.

I just absolutely LOVE my family. I feel totally blessed to be a part of such a loving, supportive family. <3