The Wise Family Christmas

Well, the Wise Christmas was at our house this year! That's right.... not any of the other bigger homes of my siblings, they all came to our townhome in Piney Orchard! So I had big plans, as AJ and I are such big planners and without kids, we had plenty of time to set up and plan the menu, decorate, etc.

First step was to shimmy the Christmas tree down the basement. Mainly we had to do this because our floors were being done but we kept it down there because that is our biggest open space to have 11 adults and 7 kids open LOTS of presents!

It was such a blessing this year to really fellowship with everyone in our family. We made it a 2 day ordeal with a girl movie night for Holly's birthday and a suprise (sort of) baby shower for Jen (due April 1st). We ate TONS of cookies as all of my sisters made at least 2 different types of big batches of cookies! I think when it was all done, we had about 15 different types of cookies to snack on all weekend!

Here are some pictures... notice, I'm in sweats and a t-shirt because all my sisters asked if they could come in sweats or yoga pants to relax while we spend hours of gift opening and a big meal. I said sure, so to make my guests comfortable I, the hostess, also wore comfy clothes... to my suprise they all showed up dressed up, not in dresses but definitely not in sweats. Oh well, at least I was super comfy!

Here is the second day, pizza was for dinner and smores at the fire pitt on the deck was for dessert! Here are 5 of the 7 nieces and newphews.
Here is the 12 seater (we now know it seats 14) table that AJ not only built, but set with our china for Christmas dinner. He was so proud!
Our kitchen clean and ready for LOTs of cooks and good food!

We had to deal with 14 boxes of hardwood sitting around our house because the installers couldn't finish the floor in time for our party. SO... I put a table cloth over the boxes and a centerpiece and it became the cookie table, appitizer table, and the kid table for them to eat dinner! You could never tell!

Here is our Wise Family Clan!Aunt Melissa gave the kids some disposable cameras, here is Mary Clarie taking our picture during gift opening!

Here are the only two couples left without kids in this family, during gift opening!

Here is some of the action!

As tradition, everyone picks a seat and gifts are sorted into piles. The kids did such a good job waiting for their piles to be complete!