Christmas Eve

December 24th, 2010

Before I post any pictures, I need to explain something. There are no words to explain my family. :-) I have the best family in the world. Every Christmas Eve, we get together at my Grandpa and Grandma Fullmer's house. There is a smorgasbord of food (potluck) and we talk, play games, re-enact the Nativity, and do some kind of gift exchange. Sounds simple, right? Imagine this: 2 grandparents, 1 great aunt, 12 aunts and uncles, 26 cousins, 6 second cousins, 6 siblings, 2 parents, 1 husband, 1 daughter and a partridge in a pear tree. That's 58people including myself. AND, that's only my mom's family! That doesn't include the years that my mom's cousins have come and spent Christmas Eve with us! (We have seriously had up to 80 people, all 1st and 2nd cousins, on Christmas Eve.) Now, take those 58 people and stuff them into a one-floor ranch style home. Two words: CRA-ZY! This year it wasn't quite as crazy. 20 relatives were visiting their in-laws this Christmas. So, only 38 people. (Which is still an insane amount for most families...) Anyways, we did the traditional get together only this time, because of less people, with a few twists. 

The first twist was reenacting the Nativity. I am the eldest grandchild. All of those 26 cousins come after me. My closest cousin is Tiffany and we are 1 year 4 days apart. My youngest cousins are twins, Amelia & Avery, and we are 30 years, 1 month, and 12 days apart. Every year that I am home, my grandma calls me and asks me to be in charge of the Nativity. Not that bad when I was in high school, even when I had just graduated high school. Most of my cousins were still young enough that it was manageable. As we all got older though, the Fullmer syndrome kicked into high gear... family induced ADHD... When my family gets together in force, we all become this ultra-hyper bunch of kiddo's. It doesn't matter how old we are, we all get goofy and silly. Combine that with the attention span of a goldfish (10 seconds, maybe) and it is not always an easy task to be in charge of the Nativity reenactment. 

I can think back to when one cousin was the donkey that Mary rode on and he decided to kick his heels up (which sent the "pregnant" Mary flying... that wasn't good for the fake baby in her fake belly) or the time when we got to the line "And the shepherds were sore afraid" and my cousins who were the shepherds literally jumped into each others arms pretending to be scared. Or, the classic wise men who came onstage telling knock knock jokes because they figured that's how they could be "wise". (Wise MEN not wise GUYS...) Oh, and the year when it was decided (not by me the director but by grandma the producer) that all the aunts and uncles would reenact the Nativity instead of the grandchildren. Yet, somehow, I was still in charge. All I have to say, is where do you think the grandkids learned it all from?!? (I so wish these were fake examples. They're not.) After I left home and got married, the task of Nativity director went to my cousin Brittany (although I'm not sure how it skipped  my cousin Tiffany or my sister Becky...) 

Anyways, to make a long story short, Brittany had the INSPIRED idea to (this year) make a Nativity video and just show that on Christmas Eve instead! AND, we decided that we could just always show the Nativity video instead of reenacting it! (And the Heavens opened so the angels could sing...) Beautiful! Brittany called me up and asked if I wanted to help. I said sure and we were off. I have to laugh because Brittany put us both down in the credits as directors but I didn't really do anything. She was the driving force behind it all. My mom said that grandma was worried that we (all the grandkids) would be too goofy but then she found out that Brittany and I were heading it up. Grandma felt better about it apparently. haha... 

It did turn out good though and it was a fun moment. The only drawback was that my Aunt Lisa's kids were all in Florida for their family Christmas vacation (they were part of the 20 people who were gone) and Troy's kids were not able to make it (the twins are still in NICU at the hospital  - doing well though - and I think my grandma had my cousin CJ that day).

The other twist was the gift exchange. I'm not sure exactly who was the behind this, I think it was my cousin Brittany, but we all brought a gift for a white elephant exchange. It was pretty funny. There were some cool things too. My personal favorites: the boomerang from Australia, the metal flask (all the boy cousins were after that one... and my mom - she said she wanted to drink her Dr. Pepper during preschool from it), a frame that spelled "Alaska" with the picture slots, the Miracle ball (which I won), a scrapbook album, and denture cream. Awesome. 

All in all, it was great to be home for the traditional Christmas Eve shin-dig. After Grandma's, we always come home to my parents house and open our Christmas pj's... All the boys and all the girls have matching outfits. This year (as in years past) we decided to take the pyramid picture. The sad part was that my sister and her husband decided to do their own thing after Grandma's. They got their pajamas but took them back to their apartment to open them. A little sad but understandable since Tyler had been gone for the first 6 months of their marriage at boot camp and training. I've never been in that type of situation so I'm not sure what Jer and I would have chosen to do. They did come over Christmas Day and spend it with us and that was fun. :-)

I wanted to make some sort of cake for the family party...

My mom bought the Fisher Price Nativity set so Jessica could play with it. She really liked it. For some reason though, she did not want anything to do with the Baby Jesus.

Cake presents that I put on top of the cake... Completely edible of course...

Here is the finished cake product. :-) The writing, holly, and Christmas tree were done free hand. Everything is edible. I really like making cakes (I can only do 1 or 2 a month though...)

Tony leaves his laptop on the end of the table in the kitchen. It's like his own private little nook!

My parents mantle with all of our stockings. Cool story about these stockings, my great-grandma made all of them. She used to make a stocking for the new babies in the family. She passed away in July of this year (July 2010) in her 90's. She hadn't made stockings for a long time. This Christmas I started putting the plug in for the stockings. Can I claim those as my "birthright" as the eldest? Not sure... I'm trying to track down the stocking pattern though. That would be neat to carry on that tradition.

Jessica absolutely LOVED Jeremy's banana chair in his room!

Okay - here's the first of the pyramid poses. (They are actually all the same but different things in different faces made me like them all for different reasons. That last sentence is funny...) Bottom Row from Left to Right: Jeremy, Jer, Derrall. Middle Row from Left to Right: Becky, Me. Top Row... Tony! (Only ones missing are Tammy and Tyler - if they were here we could have added Jessica too...)

I like this one because Becky and I were laughing hysterically while trying to balance on our brothers (and my hubby's) backs while simultaneously trying to be steady for Tony on top of us. Not an easy task I'm telling you.

We decided to do our own family photo's. Jessica (eating a candy cane) is balanced on top of us. She thought that was hilarious. Although that could have been a result of the sugar from the candy cane... not sure.

Did I mention that Jessica got addicted to candy canes? She would pull them off my mom's tree. Wouldn't have been that bad except that those candy canes were about 13 years old. Apparently they were still mighty tasty because she kept pulling them off.

More pyramid power.

All right, all right. Last pyramid pose.

The mother-daughter Christmas picture (I think she was coming down from her sugar high though...)

Jessica and Uncle Jeremy

Just chillin' by the Christmas tree.

Jessica really likes taking pictures.

Grandma's camera is the PERFECT camera to practice picture taking on. Why? Because she's not practicing on my camera! :-)

At the end of the night, I always like sitting up by the Christmas tree after everyone has gone to bed. It's the one night that my parents have the Christmas tree plugged in all night. With the lights off and the tree lit, it's very peaceful. I always sit and reflect on why we celebrate Christmas and the eternal significance of our Savior's birth. Sometimes I read from the New Testament. Other times I write in my journal. This was one of those years where I did neither. I just took a moment to sit and ponder. There is always a sweet and tender spirit in the room. I was grateful to be home so I could participate in my own private tradition again. I'm grateful for my Savior. What a beautiful gift. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:16-17)