Andes Christmas

Sunday was Christmas with all the Andes. First order of business: get a cousin picture.

Then began the great opening of presents. Once all presents were unwrapped, the kids starting opening some. Here are the main Lego builders in the family.

Bill bought a few cans of Make Your Own Snow. The kids (minus Max who was asleep) enjoyed playing with it.

Paige decided her dolls would enjoy playing in the snow.

And then came the karaoke. Chris and Patti brought their new karaoke machine. Lucy and Paige definitely enjoyed it the most. Some members only watched or sang along in the background. (Lucy knows and sang most of the Taylor Swift album).

Bill chose Don't Stop Believin' by Journey.

The kids were happy to sing along even if they'd never heard the song before.

The adults put their names in a bowl and Bill and Patti were chosen to sing I Got You Babe (but not the Cher version :) )

Once we'd had enough karaoke, the kids used the microphones to tell jokes. (I think I got each of them on video telling one below. Some jokes were funny. Some made no sense.)

The girls

Me, Dad, and the boys

If these uploaded correctly, they are proof of some of the craziness that went on during karaoke and joke time!

Father's Day Weekend

Saturday night Rudy and I met Bill, Renee and Paige and our friends Jim, Marni, Matthew, Zachary, and Daniel at the Ocean City Boardwalk.

As we waited for Jim's family, we went on a few rides at the pier first, Paige picked the log flume for her first ride so Bill and I went with her.

Rudy chose the swings for his first,.

Then Bill took Paige and Rudy on the tilt-a-whirl.

We met up with everyone else and had dinner then the kids played min golf. I got some baby time with Daniel.

And some friend time with Jim.

After minigolf was more rides then treats. Once the ice cream and funnel cake were eaten, the kids had a lot of energy to run off, so they played red light green light, around Bill.

On Father's Day the whole family got together (plus Jim and his family). We tried to take a picture of Grandpa and the grandkids. These two girls were the easiest.

This was the best that included the boys.

And then with two extra boys...

Then we took a picture of the dads and kids...I'm not sure who made it harder the big or little kids! (Note: The big kids who caused the most trouble were the ones on the floor.)

Then we thought we'd take a nice Andes family picture- dad and his kids. Charlie photo bombed us.

Then if you look carefully his fingers made it in.
(Note to family, I thought I lightened these, but I have better versions of them all. Maybe I'll try to print some out but if your turned out better, let me know.)

Then since we had people to take our whole group picture, instead of relying on timers, we tried a few family pictures.

Christmas

Christmas Eve and the traditional family picture in front of the tree. Oops. Forgot to set the timer.

Yep, still pushed the wrong button.

There we go. Let's take one with and one without flash just in case.

After church we went to our (new) tradition of having the Feast of the Seven Fishes with friends.

Christmas morning the kids were excited by their stockings.

And then the present opening began.

My son knows me well...maybe.

Each of the kids got an electronic device and everything stopped for a while...

On the 27th we headed to PA for the Andes Christmas.
First we ate, then before presents we took a kid picture.  The first one turned out the best...

Then, of course, they all wanted to do silly pictures...

The present opening seemed much calmer and more relaxed than in the past. After presents we had dessert and then the game playing began.

Some played Wits and Wagers.

Some Sneaky Squirrel.

And some Connect Four.