Glover Family Christmas

We waited to celebrate Christmas with the Glover side of our family until this last weekend. With Mom's retirement party on the 2nd, we figured we would all make a long weekend of it. I love being home for Christmas with our big crazy family...even if it is a few weeks after the actual holiday. Plus, this year was extra special for us b/c it was Avery's 1st Christmas!

First things first - Cheers to Grandma Pat's Retirement!


Avery with her Uncle Mike

The grandkids "patiently" waiting to start opening presents after lunch.


Avery with her cousin Shelby


After we have our Christmas lunch, everyone picks their seat in the living room and someone is designated to start the 20 min task of distributing presents - Ellie did the honors this year. Grandma and Grandpa's living room gets pretty claustrophobic with all 17 of us and our stacks of presents piled in there.


Kayla and Caitlin camped out with their stacks of presents on the couch to keep them from getting mixed up with the other kids'.


Since Avery is the youngest family member, this year it was her turn to open presents first. Mostly, she just wanted to chew on everything though. :)

Thank for the the baby doll Ellie...it tastes even more yummy w/o the wrapping paper!

Thank you for the crawling Pooh Bear Mike, Melinda & the girls! Hank gets a little freaked out when Pooh starts crawling, but Avery loves it!

Thank you for the Little People SUV Jason, Meghan & the boys! Aunt Meghan made sure it was an SUV and NOT a minivan b/c she knew Daddy wouldn't allow a minivan in the house. :) Avery has figured out how to make the music go and I now have the song in my head constantly..."with a beep-beep, honk-honk, all around the town...."

Thank you for the stroller and baby doll Grandma & Grandpa!


Thanks for all the gifts everyone...but I think I'll just play with the wrapping paper for now. :)

One of the drawbacks of opening gifts one at a time with so many kids (besides the obvious lack of patience) is that they get a lot of the same gifts. So, by the time Ellie (the oldest grandchild) opened her gifts she was pretty certain on what she was getting from everyone. Maybe we'll have to come up with a new present opening method next year.

Collin wasn't quite sure what to think of this present at first - as you can tell by his expression. Once he figured out it was a snowball maker, he was pretty excited.

Caitlin showing off her Hannah Montana PJ's from us.

Shelby got them too. :)

Kayla with her new boots. All the girls got boots from Grandma & Grandpa this year.

Every year Mom & Dad get each of us a couples gift. Our gift this year was a clothes steamer, Mike & Melinda got new bedding, and Jason and Meghan got a roaster. As you can see by his expression, Jason was very excited about this gift. :) haha - this picture is PRICELESS!!!

All the guys got Husker slipper socks. Mike, they're socks-they go on your feet:)

Every year Mom gives us all the same lecture..."don't buy Dad and I anything for Christmas, we don't need anything". And EVERY year none of us listen and we all get them gifts anyways. So, this year we decided to ban together and all pitch in to get Mom & Dad a Visa giftcard that they could put towards a new gas grill. Well, mom got a little emotional about this gift to say the least. None of us were expecting the waterworks over a giftcard! If you think about, it's really more of a selfish gift on our part...we just wanted to make sure they had a working grill to cook for all of us when we come to visit. :)


Alex was obviously exhausted from all the excitement.

We had to wake Daddy up so that he could put Avery's new stroller together.

Look at how big I am!!!

Libby is the baby doll expert in the family, so she had no problem showing Avery how to use her new stroller.


Later that night, the older kids braved the bitter cold to go out and play in the winter wonderland that Grandma & Grandpa's backyard had become. The snow drifts in their backyard were amazing - perfect for snow tunnels, forts, and of course sledding. The drift that Shelby is sitting on in this picture is over the top of the deck railing where the flagpole is mounted.



Ellie and Kayla modeling the pajamas that we got them for Christmas. They were supposed to be striking a pose, but I think Kayla was still recovering from the Colt's losing and was not in a very cheesy mood.

Of course I had to buy Avery a set of pj's to match her cousin Libby. Again they are matching in their teal - it's a good color on blondes. :)



My Uncle Joe & Aunt Laura also came for the weekend to celebrate my mom's retirement so we had enough people to play 2 tables of pitch. We always have a great time when we all get together....but that could have something to do with all the Miller Light cans on the table too - haha :)