Cousins Christmas

We have spent virtually every year with all our family/cousins for Christmas. A few years ago we were forced to change it to the Saturday following Christmas because as our family grew so did the commitments. Christmas day will never be the same, but I am glad we still make it a point to celebrate together, it's really a highlight. There is nothing more important than family. There are four of us that rotate having the party, so this year it was in St George, Utah. Maybe because we left the day after Christmas or for another unknown reason, the traffic going there was worse than the Annual Sale at Nordstrom's. What is normally a six hour drive (remember the kind of driver I am married to...) was an eleven hours endurance marathon. The drive back was only a bit better, ten hours (but that included an hour in line at a gas station to use the one seat potty!). Once we got there we had a great time, Saturday we went for a hike in Snow Canyon, and I was impressed as my mom went with us! She is 81 years old, but does very well and had many hands to help her. The ages ranged from two-months to 81 years! After that we went to the church and played soccer. If any of you know my family to say we are competitive is an understatement. The rules were no hands what-so-ever, you had to kick the ball from where it was, even if that happened to be under my chair while holding my almost one-year-old niece in my arms. Back to the hotel to shower and then off to my cousins home for dinner. We found a new way to sing Christmas Carols this year. Another cousin, Steve, cut pipes different lengths to make chimes, handed them out and then gave us nails to hit them with when it was our turn. He had the notes to play printed up so we could follow. If one person screwed up you could hear it. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time. By the end we were doing fairly well. After that we played "Mafia". It's basically a game kind of like Clue without any game board. Everyone really gets into it and it's all about lying and trying to talk the others into believing your way, with the main point of not getting killed, or not letting them know you are the mafia. We played until 1:30 in the morning. It's amazing what comes out of your mouth when you are trying to lie, and keep a straight face, all while not giving something away. The whole day was so much fun, but it just makes me miss my family all the more. Rozlyn's boyfriend, Jonathan, went with us and I was a wondering if he would be overwhelmed, but he loved it and fit right in. We missed those that couldn't make it this year. As you can see by the picture we had a good turnout. What you don't see is that about half are missing. Hope next year we can have as much fun and even more can attend. It's at my house so plan ahead PLEASE!