Christmas 2008 - Part 2

On Christmas morning we woke up early and headed out to Michael's Grandpa and Grandma's house. It had been a few months since we had seen them and with as much as Elena changes in just a few weeks, we figured it was time that she pay them a visit. As a bonus, we also got to see other family members and eat a delicious meal!

As a Christmas gift to ourselves we kidnapped Michael's sister, Maria, and brought her back to my parents house for a few days so she could celebrate Christmas with us. It was so much fun to be able to ride in the car with her and for Elena to have a friend in the back seat. Maria was a good sport and came along with us to various events.

One of the funnest events we were able to be a part of was the Koop side family Christmas. Other extended family members were invited also, so there ended up being about 26 of us there that day (on the 26th). My aunt and uncle opened up their home for all of us to celebrate together.

Each year our family takes part in a project instead of giving each other gifts. Well, we still give gifts but you'll see what kind of gifts they are in a bit...

This year our family project was to put together school kits for kids in other countries. Here we all are, hard at work.


And then we ate...

This year instead of giving each other "real" gifts we did an edible gift exchange. However, it was just an exchange as we did it "while elephant" style in which we could steal from each other if we liked what another person had opened up. It made for a fun time. I got several of the gifts I opened stolen but I finally ended up with some delicious mint chocolate brownies. Michael came home with his own gift after stealing it from other people.

Uncle Garry posing with all the presents before we started opening them.

Things got pretty ugly when people started making faces and stealing Starbucks cards.

And my mom got the gift I brought - a ham! She was so happy to get it!