Pretend Christmas

We spent Sunday and Monday nights at Burns's sister-in-law, Shelly's house. She was so nice to host the Armstrongs even though we're not actually her family, most of us. We had a fabulous time all together. Here are some of the things we did.



Nieces and nephews. (The boys are brothers, and the girls are sisters.) Lillianne, Finn, Malia, James, Aly



Soon after the above video was taken, we added Noel to the couch, and they were all chanting, "10 kids on the couch! 10 kids on the couch!" It was awesome.



We put Noel in this bumbo a lot. It was great. She enjoys being up higher where she can see more.



Above and below: Love those faces.







This video just gives a hint of the chaos that always is going on when we're all together. We love it. Lots of talking and playing and singing and who knows what all at the same time. My favorite thing in this video is the fact that I hear my dad saying, "Put your right ear on yellow." That's totally something my dad would say, but what makes it even funnier is that he's calling that out from China. My parents hung out with us virtually as much as they could while we were all together. During the cousin gift exchange we had my parents on one lap top and my sister's family in Texas on another lap top. We even had the computers face each other at one point so that my parents got to watch my nephew, Carson doing an awesome dance. I love technology. Of course we would have loved to have been all together. But I'm glad we at least could see and talk to everybody.



Melissa's a fabulous aunt. Here she is holding Sam and Noel.



One of the traditions we have every time Burns's family is in town is "Dancing at Grandma Anne's [my Aunt Anne]" and taking a bubble bath in her tub. Here are Burns's 3 daughters, her niece, Kaylee, and Amy in the tub. You can probably guess that they have a wonderful time.

We sat around and talked and also played games A LOT. The only fun thing we didn't do much of was sleep. What a wonderful time!