is it feeling like the 12 days of christmas all over again?

More like the 12 years of Christmas, right?

Cuz I'm only about half-way done.  Heh.  Non-family members, feel free to return to my blog some time around...oh, Thursday or so.  Cuz I have some good stuff coming up:  paying it forward, the craziest Kirby Vacuum Salesman experience ever, and our low-key New Year's Eve.  I know you can barely contain your excitement.  But try.

So, the Sunday after Christmas things got even busier, starting out with a lovely sacrament meeting in which one of the sister-in-laws said something to me that has never been said in regards to my family ever ever ever:  "How do you get your kids to stay so well-behaved?"  I almost started laughing.  The poor sister-in-law in question has 2 babies younger than mine, so sure, by comparison, mine sat nicely and were well-behaved in church.  But I almost internally combusted with shock and pride when she spoke the words out loud.

Then, back to the homestead in prep for the rest of the family (great grand-parents, more aunts, uncles, cousins and all) to join the festivities for dinner and a show.  We put on a Christmas program with all the kids having parts.  Sean was Joseph and Cam and Ethan were 2 of the 3 wise men.  Some of the kids narrated, others sang, others were purely eye candy, and all of us muddled through some unfamiliar songs.  But it was still awesome cool.

Since my last remaining grandparent died this summer, this man has become one of my favorite people on earth, Danny's paternal grandpa.

Who knew he could play trumpet so well?

And yep, back by popular demand, VIH performed again.

Complete with 3rd verse with the falsetto.  Oy.

Later, after a long hard day, we put a movie on for the kiddos--half of whom fell asleep within minutes.  Adults included.

 

This was one of my favorite memories of the weekend, everyone all splayed out and sawing logs after good family togetherness.

The several of the men and boys (mine included) woke up at 5:30 to go duck hunting.  In the 30 degree weather.  In water.  I thought Danny was nuts to take Sean and Cameron--I thought not only would they freeze and complain, but that they would soon be bored sitting out for 4 hours waiting for ducks to show up.

They actually had a really good time.  All of the men and the other boys had waders one to protect clothes and shoes from water, but my boys of course had nothing, so they just had to be careful not to get wet.

Did I just type that in all seriousness?

Have you ever noticed how there could be 6 square inches of water sitting on your driveway or street and a boy will inevitably find it and splash in it?  Yeah. . . they didn't stay dry.  But they did have so much fun.  Didn't get one duck, but had a good first time hunting with the big boys.

Later that morning, we went to the Japanese Steakhouse, which is basically Ichiban in Fresno.  We love tempanyaki and this was no exception.

Sean took all these pictures:

 

Then, approximately 45 minutes later, we went to Pump it Up to puke our guts out celebrate cousin Collin's birthday party.

 

 

Notice Ethan doing rabbit ears on himself.

Then home for probably my favorite part of the whole vacation--set the kiddos up with movies in the living room again and all the adults played games. 

What is it about game nights that are just so fun?!  We played a few new ones to us:  Sequence, Apples to Apples, and Imaginiff?  SO fun!  We laughed and laughed.  A great end to our vacation in California!