Christmas

My whole family (minus our two missionaries Hannah and Johnny) went to Daufuskie Island in South Carolina for Christmas this year.  We were 'talked' into going--and now we are glad we did, but at the time we were not looking forward to adding more crazy on top of the crazy we were already living in.  The kids of course, since all they have to do is enjoy life, were super excited for the trip.  Christmas Eve morning we felt like we were in the movie Home Alone as we frantically tried to get packed before the car picked us up to take us to the NYC airport.  From there we flew to SC, then took a taxi to the marina, and finally took a boat (at night) to the island.  

As a grand finale my brothers picked us in golf carts from the boat dock!  While multiple modes of transportation stressed Mark and I, my kids thought the whole thing was the perfect beginning to a great adventure.  They were so excited to see all their aunts and uncles and cousins, and luckily when we arrived late most of them were still waiting up for us.

We let the kids party for a little while then it was off to bed because the next morning was CHRISTMAS!

The house we stayed in was huge and had a suite for each married couple--but with four kids (one of which being a newborn) it made for some sleepless night.  So, after sleeping as much as we could,  we went downstairs to enjoy the day.





 Luckily Santa found us on the island and delivered stockings and a couple small gifts.

It got a little chaotic with 22 grandkids (and my little siblings) opening presents

Aunt Crystal and Jaxon

Our family exchanges names--so after breakfast we opened gifts from the gift exchange.  

Marcus waiting for his gift with all his cousins

After presents everyone sat back and relaxed.   To top off a perfect Christmas Day, Ella got baptized in the ocean (she needed a little peer-pressure to follow through with her plans once she realized how cold the water was).  Katie insisted on putting on a dress, while the rest of us attended in our pajamas.

listening to a talk on baptism

kids playing twister

The rest of the trip went by in a blur.  We spent time on the beach when it was warm enough to enjoy it.  The kids all ran around in gangs from one activity to another.  Some of my sisters were on top of things and had crafts for them to do.  The adults ate a lot.  At night we stayed up way too late playing games and talking about ridiculous stuff.  One night we lost power (and heat), we had a fire in the fire place but it couldn't heat the whole house.  Luckily, the electricity kicked in before it got too cold and we had to pile all the kids in bed with us.

We took a family picture--where all the grandkids wore a shirt with their birth order number on it.  We color coordinated by family and all the Dalia kids whore a white shirt.  The greatest part is that we did it all on a timer.  With 22 (our little Jax is the youngest) grandkids the pictures turned out a lot better then I thought!

Tripp's-navy; Jenn's-grey; Sarah's-red; Mine-green; Joey's-black; Flossie's-orange; Bryan's-maroon

Friday we headed home.  Of course everyone was so sad to leave, the trip home is always the worst with sad and tired kids.

Katie

Addy and Marcus passed out within mins of hitting the boat

They made me put a life jacket on Jaxon on the way home, he only cried for the first 15 mins of the ride.

On the way home, the boat almost broke down, we literally puttered into the boat dock.  We were late so our taxi had left us and had to turn around.   Our plane was delayed.  And when we finally arrived in NYC it was freezing and our car was stuck in a line.  BUT, we made it home safe and sound.

We were supposed to get snow the next day, so we decided to go ahead and set up for our 2nd Christmas.  Someone had left some sleds under the tree and the kids had some presents from us and from Grammy and Grandpa that were still unopened.

It started snowing early afternoon, at the first flake the kids put on their snow pants (which they had conveniently gotten for Christmas), coats, etc and ran outside.  Their first Connecticut snow was everything they had dreamed of.

They tried to sled (I'm still laughing at this) and were pretty disappointed that it would not go.  Marcus' shoe fell off at one point and he cried because the snow was 'too cold'.  By the time there was actual snow on the ground only Katie was left outside.

Marcus rejoined Katie to help decorate the snowman.

Welcome to Connecticut kids, it's only going to get better from here!