I Love Me Some Christmas!

For Christmas this year, we went the beach the weekend before Christmas like we always do with my mom's side of the family...we rent a house and two connecting condos and we just all pile in there. It's pretty much fantastic. We have several traditions...we play Bingo...the most competitive Bingo you will ever play...on cards that date back to the 1600's. We play Dirty Santa...we've just started that one...two years running now. I don't know if I like Dirty Santa, but it's pretty funny to watch people get all worked up about it. My grandmother, aunts, and mom make the best meals ever. And we give everybody a hard time about something. The more you whine about something, the more you get aggravated about it, so it's best to keep quiet. Here are some pictures from the beach: 

This is me and my siblings. 

This is me, my sister, and my brother's lady friend. 

These are my parental units.

This is cousin Abigail. I have a feeling she's scheming to take over the world one day...right now, she's just formulating a plan to claim all the green beans to herself...I tell ya...that girl is the Jolly Green Giant.

Who says you need to leave the continental US to see a beautiful sunset. 

These are my feets. I love feet pictures. I don't know why. I hate feet. I don't want to touch other people's and I don't want them touching mine. Ick. 

This is the cousins playing a game of volleyball. It turned into black-eye volleyball when it got too dark to see the ball anymore, but no one wanted to quit because it was "dangerous and cool." 

This is me and my sweet love. 

This is my uncle...he's diabetic. So, when he eats 4 pieces of fudge, 3 cowboy cookies and 5 pieces of red velvet cake...he dives into a sugar coma...sleeping like a baby.

This is my other uncle...this is what happened when someone asked, "Will you save the tissue paper so I can use it again?" Yeah, you see why I'm the way I am. 

This is my sister and Papaw...these aren't their normal faces. 

This is the boys rejoicing after their win in Battle of the Sexes...they totally got all of the easy questions. Dumb game.

These are just random pictures of us being silly...like always. 

Here are the ancient Bingo cards.

One of the aggravation issues I referred to earlier is my cousins' clothing...my mom and uncles think their shirts are too tight. Like, "what 10-year old did you steal that off of?"...so, here my mom and uncles are wearing shirts that obviously fit very well.  

We were also able to spend the day after Christmas with my dad's side of the family. We play Dirty Santa there, too. Agh, that game...it haunts me wherever I go. These are my grandparents and all of the grandkids. 

This is my family. Yes, I'm the shortest...I stopped growing in the 4th grade. It's hard for me to talk about it. 

This is my grandmother's sweet potato soufflé...oooh...they should make a movie about that stuff. It can cure any illness and make you burst into song spontaneously. I've written several poems about it. I swear she puts crack in it. 

This is my parents' tree. My mom keeps it up year-round...sans ornaments. 

These are all of us opening our gifts. Both sets of grandparents come over to celebrate Christmas morning with us.

Here are the parental units again. My dad doesn't normally look so...on drugs. Mom got him this little telescoping handle thing for his camera that makes it easier for you to take pictures of yourself or you and a friend when you don't have someone around to take one for you. You just attach it to your camera and hold it out so you can't see your arm or the contraption and you can get a more panoramic view. So, he was happy with his new toy and we made fun of him.

Here are me, my sister and my dad's mom (Mamaw). And Sara's ridiculously awesome earrings. They were actually my other Mamaw's and she gave them to me to wear to next year's tacky sweater party. I'm totally gonna wear them. Sara blessed us by wearing them all morning.

This is my brother. He is half bat. And yes, that is a Canadian goose on the wall. We grew up in a log cabin...there are a lot of animal things around...including my brothers.

This is mom and her hot chocolate and one of her many jogging suits. 

This is me and Noah cleaning the front garden area for the parental units just cuz we're nice. It pretty much looked like an oak tree threw up all over the ferns and bushes. And, no, that's not my hat. I borrowed it from Noah.

We also visited David's family on Christmas day. I realize I didn't take my camera with me, but I'll get some pictures of them later. They're a pile of cutie patooties! 

Anyways. That was our Christmas. It was awesome and we had a blast seeing everybody. Yes, we're a bunch of rednecks, but our families are incredible and we love them so much.