The Xmas Festivities Never End!!!

After our long day of running around on Xmas day we make our way back to Debbie's to have our time to open gifts with her before we go to dinner at Britt and Tom's. This year we got there as Heather, Steve and Jack were finishing up. I am always excited to see what Debbie is going to give us. She always puts so much thought into every gift. I love gift cards, don't get me wrong, but when you open up each of Debbie's gifts you see how personalized it is just for you. Thanks for making each holiday so special Deb!

Larkin Xmas party

My mom has this fabulous club house that is in her neighborhood for people to rent. It has been such a nice thing to have since we are not getting any smaller as a family and no one has a big enough house to accomodate all of us now. It's been especially nice because it gives more of a reason to all get together more often. I am very blessed to know my second cousins and great aunts and uncles so well. We don't just see each other once a year at Christmas parties like this, but randomly throughout the year as well. Thanks mom and Tim for providing us with a place to grow closer as a family. :-) Love you!

This Christmas we spent the night out at Landon's dad's. When Landon and I were first dating we spent a lot of time out at his dad's house. It was just far away enough from everything that we could relax. We spent quite a few weekends out there with it being just the five of us (Landon, me, his dad, step mom Denise, and step sister Bailee). Landon and his dad would do something in the yard while us girls cooked some of the most scrumchious dinners. Denise is a fabulous cook. It was our runaway place. I think all the rest of the Landon's siblings caught on. lol Now when we go out there it's usually the whole brady bunch load of us. It's definitely great getting to see everyone it just makes it so it's not so much the house of relaxation anymore. lol More like chaos! It's fun though. They are a great bunch. This last Christmas we knew that it was just going to be the three of them on Christmas morning. We decided to join them like old times and have it be just the five of us. It was so nice getting to have that quality time with them again like that. Gregg and Denise surprised us with a very nice storm door like they have. You know you're getting old when you get excited for presents like storm doors. lol As you can see in the pics we were very surprised with our magnificent gift. Thanks Gregg, Denise and Bay for sharing your Xmas morning with us. :-)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the day we dedicate to my dad for present exchange. This year we had my grandparents come and join in on the fun. It was nice to have them there. One of the hardest things to get used to after we got married was not being able to see all of my family on Christmas day. I had been used to making it to both grandparents and two step families. Now we don't even have enough time to see all our parents on Christmas day. We do our best to squeeze everyone in sometime in the same week as the holidays. ;-) I'm sure when you look at these pictures you will have a bit of confusion. Let me give some explanation. We bought my dad and Audrey this game called Quelf for Christmas. We are very big board game players when we hang out with my pa. I love it! I won't tell you much about the game because when you play it for your first time it's more funny to be in the dark a little bit, but it is lots of fun and gets you more acquainted with your fellow playmates. We've got my dad playing the drums, Grandma doing a hula dance, Grandpa wearing a nice bib, Korey getting comfy with Landon and Grandma....Game on!