On Christmas morning, after having breakfast with Trent's parents, we packed up the car and headed to Westside for our holiday stay there.
Our first stop in the afternoon was to Grandma and Grandpa Kock's. We had some snacks and then, after everyone was there, we headed downstairs to open presents. First, though, we all gathered for a family picture!
Millie got to come along with us while her big sister stayed with Trent's parents. Here's one of her calmer moments :)
On the day after Christmas, we gathered in Manilla for Christmas with the Jons family.
When we got to town, we took turns going up to the Manor to see Grandma and Grandpa and wishing them a Merry Christmas and then we all got back together for our potluck supper.
Right after supper, the little kids opened their presents. It is so fun to see how excited they get about their things. Austin even got a box of redeemable cans and dollar bills and it was like the greatest thing he has ever gotten. So adorable!
The adults then did our gift card exchange and some of us did a white elephant gift exchange. The gift exchange included a lot of things from Grandma and Grandpa's house like a used box of crayons, mugs with old pictures of Barb and Pat and their kids, an old pajama t-shirt of Doreen's that we all used to wear, and some of Grandpa's old clip on ties. We had fun with that!
There was then one additional present from Doreen to the six of us cousins. There used to be a Keebler Elf cup that we all drank out of at Grandma's (that is now pretty worn out and has a bunch of teeth marks on it) and Doreen found six of them and gave each of us our own to have! So of course we had to take pictures with our cups!
We also had to take pictures of everyone separated by the months of their birthdays. The best month, JUNE, is below :)
And, of course, Millie got to come, too!!
Jared served as our Santa again this year, a job my dad had always done. I miss the way he used to do things when he was being Santa and handing out presents. It makes me smile every time I think about it! Soon, though, we will all get used to the way Jared plays Santa and all of us and, eventually, his kids will love the way he does it!
Of course, we were all super spoiled with great gifts from each other!
After all the presents were opened, we had an amazing supper that Grandma made for us and played some games and just had a fun time (of course!).
Millie got to come along with us while her big sister stayed with Trent's parents. Here's one of her calmer moments :)
On the day after Christmas, we gathered in Manilla for Christmas with the Jons family.
When we got to town, we took turns going up to the Manor to see Grandma and Grandpa and wishing them a Merry Christmas and then we all got back together for our potluck supper.
Right after supper, the little kids opened their presents. It is so fun to see how excited they get about their things. Austin even got a box of redeemable cans and dollar bills and it was like the greatest thing he has ever gotten. So adorable!
The adults then did our gift card exchange and some of us did a white elephant gift exchange. The gift exchange included a lot of things from Grandma and Grandpa's house like a used box of crayons, mugs with old pictures of Barb and Pat and their kids, an old pajama t-shirt of Doreen's that we all used to wear, and some of Grandpa's old clip on ties. We had fun with that!
There was then one additional present from Doreen to the six of us cousins. There used to be a Keebler Elf cup that we all drank out of at Grandma's (that is now pretty worn out and has a bunch of teeth marks on it) and Doreen found six of them and gave each of us our own to have! So of course we had to take pictures with our cups!
We also had to take pictures of everyone separated by the months of their birthdays. The best month, JUNE, is below :)
And, of course, Millie got to come, too!!
And last, but not least, we had our immediate family Christmas on the Saturday after Christmas. We got up early and all found our spots in the basement and Santa Jared handed out our presents. We, of course, took our traditional pictures in front of the tree to start off the morning.
And here's a few pictures of what we spoiled each other with!
Trent and Millie and I got to say around for a few more days after all the official parties and get-togethers were done and hung out with family, went to see The Hobbit movie with Dan, Dani, and Alex, and celebrated Jared's birthday!
At the end of our 10 day Christmas vacation we were happy to get back to home (especially because I was knocked out with a cold and ready to just sleep in my bed for a while) but Christmas break is always the best time of the year! I'm already looking forward to next year!! (Even though it will be just a tad different next year - heehee!!)
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