Perfect Family Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, and it was another good one. The kids are still bouncing around the house trying to spread their time between all their new toys, dolls, and games. Donna and I are still working on the extra pounds earned during the great meals spent laughing and smiling with family.

We started on the 23rd at Mom and Dad Anderson's where we had the whole Anderson family (all 8 of us, not much by Welch standards!) together for a terrific lobster and steak dinner. It is always enjoyable to spend time with all of us together. Gavin and Isabelle especially enjoy getting to spend time with Uncle Ciao and learning Italian over dinner.

Christmas Eve brought Mom and Dad Anderson to our house for lasagna, frosting Christmas cookies, and presents. It was hard to tell whether Izzy enjoyed the presents, or the purple cookie frosting more. Gramma scored the big favs early with Star Wars figures for Gavin, and a cash register, shopping cart, and more play food than you can imagine for Isabelle. Great gift! As expected, it was a terrific night with family.


Christmas Day we almost got to sleep in, as Gavin woke up around 7am, and completely forgot it was Christmas morning. That was soon solved at 7:20 as he bounded out of his bedroom yelling it was time for present! Once the scraps of wrapping paper, empty toy boxes, and stockings had settled, Gavin and Izzy were both very happy with Santa's choices this year.

Gavin did well with the Star Wars, Transformers, Ben 10 trifecta while Izzy was very happy with her Dora Doll House, Princess sleeping bag and tent, and mini-cleaning set to help around the house. Nothing like a 2 yr. old with a swiffer to keep the house clean. Now, Donna and I are working on turning over the "toy tide" to cycle through those less used items from last year to make room for this years treasures.

We hosted Welch Christmas this year. 19 people if you are looking for the Anderson comparison from above. And yes, The Massachusetts Welch's were indeed missed. If you have never experienced the present opening portion of a Welch Family Christmas, well, words just won't do it justice. It's loud. It's fast paced. Frantic, messy, fun, well choreographed, and always an amazing case study for multi-tasking. All in all, one of those life experiences that everyone should have at least once. The lucky ones, get to look forward to it every year.

The dinner was nothing short of a small feast. And, in true Molly fashion, Donna took some pics of the appetizer table to allow others to enjoy it.

Our dining room did a pretty good job of packing everyone in, even including the obligatory "little kids" table. We did have one small mishap during dinner. But, we managed to save enough of the applesauce that not everyone had to be served off the carpet, or the wall.......nice distance Donna.















And just like that, we are looking at the new year. Christmas flew by, but left us with exactly what we wanted. Smiling kids, and a bunch more memories made with our families. Another perfect family Christmas.