Our family Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 was one of the most memorable and special Christmases yet!

To have our family together was truly an overwhelming feeling of completeness and joy. Last year was hard for me because I thought we would be traveling to China in December to bring home our little Mia. So, of course all I could think about was her during the holidays and wishing she was here with her family.

This year was so nice having the whole family here. Mia home for her first Christmas and having Jason, Matthew, Kristen, her husband Max and our Grand daughter Emma all here was especially nice. Mia and Emma had such a great time together and opening gifts in the morning was really fun to watch. Mia loves Emma and she adores her big brothers and big sister. It was just nice being all together, it’s a rare treat anymore. They are all growing up and moving/living in different cities in VA. So it’s great to actually have family time together.

The rest of our families (grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) come to our house every year to celebrate Christmas together. Scot’s family and mine combined so we have a big crowd and a great time together. We have a big Christmas dinner and then we always play the White Elephant game or Chinese gift exchange. The younger kids play their game and then the older kids/parents play a separate game.
This year we still did the White Elephant but we added a new spin to it…you had to make a home made gift-made by you. This was so much fun and we were all so surprised with the amount of talent this family has. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with next year.

The idea was to take the money that we normally used buying a gift and donating it to a charity instead. I think this will become a new family tradition