Nothing like a West Texas Christmas!

Our final round of Christmas festivities took us to San Angelo, TX to celebrate with my dad's family. I have not been with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins on that side since last Thanksgiving (over a year), so it was a ton of fun to catch up with everyone. It's hard to believe we're all grown up now- my youngest cousin is in high school and another one is getting married soon. The conversations have shifted from "What toys I got for Christmas" to "What I'm majoring in", but we still have just the same amount of fun together that we always did.

Aunt Pat, Dad, Uncle Steve, Steph and Mom- just part of the crazy crew

Another candid shot of the gang

Pretty girls! Kaylee, Jordan and Carissa

So presh. Thanks, Uncle Steve. :)

Tyler and Kylie

Kirby, me and Carissa

Aunt Mel and two of her boys, Blair and Jaymie

We all split into three teams for a very intense gingerbread house building contest. Can't you just sense the competitive nature of every person in our family by these pics?

Our team prepping for construction

Aunt Kathy, Kirby and Charlie led their team to victory- clearly they have done this a time or two before!

Cody showing off his decorating skills. He has helped me a time or two when I have decorated cakes, and I must say he's quite a pro!

The gingerbread house from the "projects" (note the gang symbols and the "West Side"). 

Our house started out really well, but unfortunately, we excel in creativity and not engineering...thus leading to a leaning house. Not to worry though, we aptly wrote "Lean on me" on the roof and went with it.

After it fell, we sang "Lean on me" to salvage what was left of it. Points for creativity? I think yes. Our singing may have been slightly better than our house building skills.

The poster children for gingerbread house building, right here.

Kaylee and Aunt Kathy

Mima and two of her girls. Love her so much!

Hubs and me at our last Christmas celebration. It was a great tour of TX!

Ryan and Jordan

Tyler and Steph

Jeff and Cody- boyfriends for life.

Aunt Pat and Cade

Mima, starting off the Chinese gift exchange

Jeff taking his turn

Kaylee, Kirby and Bethany- thanks, Jeff for the photo bomb!

Brothers and sister

Jaymie, giving us an exclusive display of his championship level Magic Mike dance moves. Isn't this normal behavior when choosing a gift at a family Christmas exchange? In our family, the answer is yes. :)

Charlie making his choice in the stash of presents

Blair with his extra large Tootsie Pop!

Aunt Mel and her boys

The Steve Brown family

So, my eyes are closed, but I had to post the family pic!

The Chadwick clan

Aunt Pat, Charlie and Mima

I'm sad to say that this concludes the tour of Texas and all of our Christmas celebrations with my family this year. It truly was wonderful, and I have already begun the countdown to Christmas 2013. After all, family is what makes life worth living! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as we did!