Are you ready for the longest post ever? Actually, it's not that long and I'll go easy on the text.

Our Christmas was fantastic. My grandparents hosted dinner on Sunday. Everyone but Dylan was there. It was awesome. As we all (we meaning my cousins) grow older it becomes more difficult to get everyone in the same room but we managed to get it done this year - sans Dylan.

Tom has much better photos from that evening but these will do. After a delicious feast of prime rib, we opened gifts. The littler kids still get a handful of gifts to open. The older kids get a a big'ol wad of cash and this year my grandmother also bought fingerless gloves for all the boys and toe socks for all the girls. It was pretty silly.

 

Not pictured are the photo calendars I made for each of my grandparents. I used pictures of all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. They make memorable gifts - in my opinion - but if only I could remember the actual year my grandparents got married because this lapse in memory totally botched my thoughtful gift. The cover of the calendar reads: The Straubhars, est. 1953. Except that's not the year they got married - it was 1956!!!!!

I am now 0 for 2 when it comes to giving gifts with the est. date. Last year I made a print for my parents that read: The Mikesells, est. 1979. Except that's the year I was born not the year they were married! Pointless story, but worth telling on the off chance that someone finds my inability to count or remember dates entertaining.

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and Jack. My grandparents stopped by for a bit as well on their way to a crab cook at my aunt and uncle's house. Stephen and Jack did a splendid job preparing rack of lamb and mussels - there is actually a disproportionate amount of food pictures from that evening. But we all know that if I love anything in this world it's a big'ol chunk of meat.

 

After my grandparents snuck out we opened gifts. Tom came away with the biggest haul - Dana got him a new bike! I also think Tom and Dana were pleased with the homemade yet thoughtful and quality gifts we crafted for them. We had a good bit of fun opening gifts and chatting before everyone left around 8:30 pm.



Even though the boys got to bed by 9 pm they still slept in. I don't think we were up and out of bed before 8 am. It didn't help that Henry had a cold (maybe even the flu). Wyatt was up for nearly 45 minutes before we decided to wake Henry.

Opening gifts didn't take very long since we were adhering the read, want, need, wear trend. You know how I hate anything matchy-matchy but when it comes to gifts, we keep it pretty even. The boys each got a new bike from Santa. This was their need gift. I didn't snap a picture but these bikes are legit. And they'd better last a long time because Santa paid a lot of money for them!

To read they each got three Easy-Reader books from National Geographic. To wear, I sewed them each two pairs of pajama bottoms and made graphic tees with their personal spirit animals, a squirrel and a bald eagle respectively. As always, I was super pleased with my ability to be crafty and I was equally as pleased that the boys are still young enough to think my creations are cool. Also, I already had all the materials I needed for the wear gifts save two bottles of fabric paint costing about a buck fifty total!

Henry and Wyatt had to share their want gift, which I suppose is one of the burdens of being a twin. They have had to endure their fair share of shared gifts over the years and I imagine the sharing will only continue. Anyway, we gave them this crappy plastic Bey Blade dome thing that they've literally played with three times because it doesn't work well. But I was expecting this. It's the reason we only bought one!



Stephen and I don't exchange gifts but I wrapped up a pair of lounge pants he knew I was making for him - he selected the pattern and the print. We were both super pleased with the final product. Me because I made the pattern from scratch and the pants fit! Stephen because the pants are just his kind of hideous plus they're cozy!



Between opening gifts and hosting brunch with the Crumrines, we made a quick Skype call to Dylan who was enjoying Christmas in France with a buddy. Then we started pulling together yet another delicious holiday meal. But don't worry, we took a break to open gifts with Glenn, Stephanie, and Tia-D.

The boys scored some fun gifts, this Foosball table being one of them. Again, I think our homemade gifts went over well, although for a brief moment Diana thought we bought her pancake mix from Trader Joe's. Luckily for her I'd just run out of regular gift boxes.



PS. You can catch a glimpse of one of those awesome new bikes in the picture above. It also substitutes as a coat rack.

In addition to our homemade gifts, I gave Stephanie framed family photos taken by the photographer at Wes and Melissa's wedding in June. They were so amazing that Glenn and Tia-D felt compelled to ooh and aah over them!



And then it was time to eat! Stephen made a scrum diddly umptious crab souffle and Tia-D brought fresh fruit and scones. We also had scrapple - a classic Crumrine traditional Christmas brunch staple. If you don't know what scrapple is, you should really click that link. I will tell you that scrapple is some hella good shit and I look forward to the one morning a year that scrapple is placed on the table!

 

After brunch we high-tailed it out of there and headed up to Condo Town for a five-night stay in our snowy little haven - another post. Although don't hold your breath, I am way behind in my story telling!

Also, I lied. This post was heavy on the text. I guess I just had a lot to say after weeks of silence.

Hope you all had a nice holiday and are enjoying the New Year!