Collins Christmas 2011

I feel like I have been posting a lot about Christmas, but we have so many celebrations! And...I want to document every single one of them.

New Years Eve we celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family...The Collins Family. It sounds kind of weird to say Collins family because my Granny is the only one with the Collins name. All five of her girls are married and her son died before he had kids...they were Collins' so we will go with that! ;)

We had the party at the Community Room in Sun City. I spent a lot of time in that building when I was a kid. Between church dinners, holiday celebrations, church plays, and volleyball games...it is definitely a place that holds a lot of memories for me.

First and foremost, we had lots of food. I swear my family always cooks a lot of food! My favorite was a peppermint cheesecake that my Aunt Anita made. It was delicious! =)

We had several different things planned to keep everyone entertained throughout the evening. Although, most of the time the teenagers played Just Dance on the Wii. Let me tell you, my cousins have some awesome dancing skills! (Susan does, too, but that is another story!)

This picture made me laugh...

 Hayden is such a Papa's boy!

 I absolutely LOVE my Molly-Noodle! Can't believe she is 15!

LOVE this girl, too!

 Addy & E had to try out the new bows that Papa & Grandma B got them for Christmas.

Brock taking his turn with the bow.

 The BIG kids had to take a turn, too!

When we weren't watching all the awesome dancers in our family, eating, or shooting bows...we played Dirty Santa, Ornament Bingo, and had our own little cake walk.

Dirty Santa was fun, but our family didn't really "steal" gifts. Possibly because there wasn't anything worth stealing, or because we are too nice. Either way, I hope that changes next year! I, for one, did steal a gift! I stole the gift my sister-in-law, Sam, brought. It was a framed picture of her and my brother, a pair of pajama socks, and chocolate kisses. I'm so excited to have a picture of them displayed at my house!

David stole the lottery tickets from my dad.

My dad had to pick a new gift and got a "Red Solo Cup!" Very fitting since he LOVES that song!

J checking out all his gifts.

The kids helped everyone pick their gifts.

The ornament bingo was fun, but I am still a little annoyed with how that turned out. My brother, who is a huge OU fan, bought a really cool KU ornament. I LOVED IT! Well...to make a long story short, J and Madison both got a bingo first and got to pick their ornament. J ended up getting it, but it fell and broke. :( The good news is, my brother is absolutely amazing and ordered me another one. My brother ROCKS!

The cake/pickle/beef jerky/etc. walk was actually pretty fun. I must admit I made a little fun of my mom when she proposed the cake walk idea. (Sorry Mom!) She knows that my kids love them and thought it would be fun. Well, she was right. It was really fun! My family brought some pretty yummy things, too! Since we had to travel so far, I didn't bake anything. Instead, I bought a big container of beef jerky and a big jar of pickles. (My family LOVES pickles!) These are the cute cupcakes that my Aunt Susan made. They were so cute and I bet they tasted good too! How could they not with all of that chocolate goodness! ;)

The kids were pretty excited about their gifts, too. Addy got a flip camera which she absolutely loves. Funny thing is, I was planning on giving it to her at Christmas, but forgot all about it! Believe me, that wasn't the only gift I forgot to put under the tree. I decided that it wasn't a bad thing; however, because they both have birthdays coming up. E got a couple of DS games. The poor kid always plays Addy's "girl" games so I thought I would get him some games he would enjoy. Sadly...he's still playing the "girl" games!

Once again, Hayden was more interested in the box!

It was a really fun night! So glad I got to spend New Years Eve with my extended family. And...E got to go with the big kids to ring the church bell at midnight. As a kid, we always raced to the church to ring in the New Year. I'm happy that E got to experience something his momma use to do in good 'ole Sun City.