Grange Sytle Christmas Eve

Okay so traveling to Utah could have been worse. The kids were great especially since this was the first trip with Kaden being 100% potty trained. The problem came when we missed them closing the road in Laramie by 10-15 minutes. It finally and thankfully reopened after an hour of waiting. The funny thing was it was a clear sky no snow, but the part they were worried about was farther in and we couldn't see it, so we decided maybe the Lord was looking out for us. Well, the next day was Christmas Eve and the whole Grange family was there to celebrate even Grandma Patterson (our only grandparent on both sides). Thirty of us counting Grandma that is 15 adults, and 15 grandchildren ranging from 10 to newborn. It was fun to see everyone and let the kids get to know their cousins better.
We have a tradition at the Grange home to have a special family home evening on Christmas Eve where we read the scripture story about the birth of our Savior, have a talent night and then open a gift. So this year we spiced it up and had all the grandkids act it out as we read. Kaden was a shepard and Aaron was suppose to be a sheep but he wasn't to fond of the mask we made for him. After we performed our talent which was singing Jingle Bells to a kids CD because Kaden knew the whole thing just from the car ride to Grandma's and Grandpa's. My Dad breaks out his accordion each year and plays the Gypsy wedding song and we all dance like crazy people. After that we had the cousins exchange their gifts to each other (they pick a name), and of course new jammies. Then we kind of got all the grandkids in their new attire to sit for a few pictures, of course not smiles from everyone but what can you expect. The kids had a blast and went to bed really well for us that night. We probably won't have this opportunity again for a long time or ever since our families are growing and getting older, but we are thankful to have these kind of memories to make us smile and laugh.