Keeler Christmas

The best time for all of us to get together and celebrate the "Keeler" Christmas 

was the day after Christmas...at my house.

Everyone showed up after I got off work (yea, had to work that day).  We talked and snacked around while my mom worked away in the kitchen to get dinner ready.

 

My clean house.        PRE-Christmas presents.  

I tried to get a picture of all of us at the table eating, but it didn't work.  I even had my mom try to take one as she tried to hold and console baby Hudson...but that one didn't turn out either.

So I'm stuck with the "after" picture...which includes Jason still eating what was left from Christmas dinner.

After dinner and before presents, I insisted on getting a family picture.  It doesn't happen very often that we are all together, so I set up my old camera on a tripod and used the self-timer feature to get this one.  It only took three tries to get a good picture of everyone looking at the camera with smiles and eyes open (except the baby, who was asleep).

While we had every body together, we did some individual family pics, too.  

Hunter thought he still needed to be in this one 

(see bottom right of pic) - hilarious!

It was near impossible to get these pictures before everyone dug in to the presents.  I think the big kids (ie JASON) were more excited than the little kids to be done with pictures and on to gifts!

I only took pictures of the gifts I got...not everyone else's.  

That would have been picture overload...as if this isn't already. 

In order of age:

Hudson was actually really in to his little light up remote control!  

He stared at it the rest of the night!

 

 

Hunter got cars.  Of course.

 

Hadley got a Frozen book.  She's obsessed with that movie.

 

Brody got a soccer ball and a Blake Shelton CD.  I was really worried about what to get him, but with Christa's help, I think I did alright.  He seemed to really like them both!

 

Allie got a t-shirt, a headband, and some awesome glitter nail polish.

 

The boys were clearly both very excited about their t-shirts they got.  More gag-gifts because I felt bad not getting them anything.

Christa made Kelli and I some awesome leg warmer/boot cuffs 

AND a bright ear warmer that I just LOVE!

Mom got some presents, too (scarf, chocolate, etc).

The kids got so many presents.  I think Hunter has to officially  have every toy car and truck sold.  He just has to...

 

Hadley is in to American Girl now, and got a doll, a suitcase that she carried  around instead of rolled around on the wheels, a toy mixer, all kind of fun stuff...

 

Brody got a soccer goal that folds up in to a back-pack thing.  Of course we had to set that thing right up in the middle of the family room...

 

Long story short, my once clean house was soon looking like this:

And you know what?  

Even with all of those new toys, the iPad still won out for the best toy by the end of the night...    

Apple for the win.

The night ended with a "new drink" of mulled wine -- (my mom always tries something out on us every holiday) -- and a very fun few rounds of a new game:  What's Yours Like?  

I would highly reccomend it for kids AND adults.  You pick a card, and tell everyone what the word is except for the person guessing.  Then you tell that person what yours is like and they have to try and figure out the word.  Did that make sense?  The instructions explain it better, but here is an example:

The word was toothbrush, and the clues went something like this:

"Mine gets wet"

"I use mine a lot"

"Mine goes in my mouth"

"Mine has little hairs on it"

"Mine is old and dirty"

Yea, you better believe we were all dying.  Oh how the mind wanders...

Anyways, it's a really fun game and we had a great time playing it!

I think everyone was pretty happy with how the Keeler Christmas went this year.  You can't beat good food, family time, and presents!