A very Wilke Christmas!

I won't bore you with a lot of pictures and stories from Christmas 2011.  Lots of pictures were taken, gifts were opened, and fun was had.  

Here is a picture of all of the cousins on my side of the family.  Between myself and my sister and 2 brothers we have 20 kids.  The cousins all love each other and love to get together with each other.  My other brother, Joe, wasn't able to be there-he doesn't have any kids yet.....come on Joe, it's your turn now!  My oldest nephew, Michael, is in the marines and stationed in Japan so he was unable to be in the cousin/grandkid picture.  Stepping in for him is my brother, Matt, (far left with Emma on his lap)...I guess Emma needed her daddy to hold her for the picture!  So here are 19 out of 20 of my Mom's grandkids. 

Every year my mom has the newest member of our family place baby Jesus in the manager on Christmas.  Since Griffin was the newest member, it was his turn this year.  He found it rather exciting, can't you tell?  I wonder who will get to put baby Jesus in the manger next year?  The future doesn't look promising for another new baby in the family....I guess we will find out next Christmas!

I am not sure what goes through my Grandparent's minds as they take everything in.  I know they are thankful for each and every one of their 33 great grandchildren and they are beyond thankful to be able to see them grow up!  I can only hope and pray they have many more Christmas's to come!  (note: Lanie still has the scrap on her nose...and Lanie was beyond crabby.  Dan had to run and get her medicine....it made for a very stressful and not so pleasant time!)

Christmas morning at our house the kids are NOT allowed to come downstairs until we tell them.  With a newborn in the house, it was pure chaos.  I carried down all the gifts at 4:30 in the morning in between feeding Griffin.  We still had a few gifts that had to be wrapped yet so we made the kids stay in their rooms until we were done.  We ran out of tape so I was using clear packing tape....yes, it was crazy.  But, we made it work and the kids were very patient with us.

Dan read the story of Jesus' birth before we opened gifts....while wearing his santa hat.  I was so happy that not one complaint came from the kids...they listened as Daddy read the story of Jesus being born and we reminded them about the "real" meaning of Christmas and how important it is to remember that it isn't all about the gifts!

Okay, I must say...not a bad picture of them...and I wasn't even trying.  Only bummer is....no Griffin :(  One day...one day!

The kids did a brother/sister name exchange.  We want them to remember the importance of giving so we allowed them each to buy a gift for the brother or sister they picked.  Abbie had Gavin and she picked out a remote control car....he was so happy he even gave her a big hug!  Makes my heart melt.....it is in times like this when I think, just for a second, we must be doing something right.

Griffin was chilling with Daddy.  And, I will admit it....Griffin didn't get one present.  Nope..not even one. At one point, I had to justify it by telling Dan, "my gift to Griffin was bringing him into the world!~"  Does that count?!?!?

Christmas Day we went over to Dan's parent's house for lunch.  Here they all are.  Notice: Lanie is smiling....what?????  I wish Gavin were closer to Abbie...but I will take this picture!  A smile from Lanie is all I needed to make my day!  Am I the luckiest person EVER?  7 awesome, adorable, sweet, caring kids and an amazing husband that puts up with me!  Dan and I don't exchange gifts....frankly we don't really need anything....we have everything we could wish for in the picture below!