Family Christmas at the Acres

My brother and sister-in-law offered, happily once again, to host family Christmas at their beautiful home. K did an excellent job decorating for the season's festivities. I asked Miles if having two Christmas trees meant he got twice as many presents. He said, "Aunt J there are three, and one in my room." Ha! Apparently, I've been doing something wrong--I've only ever had one tree!

Meanwhile, Buck and the boys and Chase were out in the back testing the new revolvers on some targets. I forgot to mention that our weapon count, gifted on Christmas morning, included at least half a dozen knives and two guns. While this didn't seem super odd to us, Noah probably wondered once again what he was getting himself into with this family, ha! He got a knife, too, though, so I'm sure that makes him feel more comfortable :)

I tried shooting a gun in the casual one-handed style of those before me, but it seemed to affect my accuracy some, lol! They are nice guns though, no kick, easy to hold--still loud!

Between K's baking and my neighbor's, there were plenty of treats! Yes. I said I'd bring something sweet to the occasion, but I completely ran out of time. When we opened our front door, there was a cheerful arrangement of homemade Christmas treats and a card from our neighbors. Great timing, neighbors! ;) While we snacked on sweets and charcuterie, my brother went to grab pizzas for our dinner.

Next, we all moved to the living room to pass around the gifts glinting around the tree--oh and the train that cruises the tracks makes real smoke rings as it chugs along! So cool! Mr. M of course had quite a healthy pile of gifts. He got to open them first. Graysen handed down the sweet cowboy hat he bought himself with birthday money when he was seven. His head outgrew it, but it fit Miles just right :) (My picture of K taking the pic of the pic below it).

Maga gave each of the kids a little white bag with personalized ornaments, light up trees that reminded her of her mom, and some cash. Noah and Chase are still surprised to be included, but they are part of the Crew, so gifts they get!

My brother also handed a gift to everyone--a real gold dollar! It was like everybody found a Wonka's Golden Ticket in their candy bar :) Very cool! K suggested we do a White Elephant gift exchange for any of the adults and teens who wanted to participate; it turns out everyone did. Everyone found nice things, too--it was hard to make exchanges because all the gifts were good. There were two massage contraptions, a local-themed Monopoly game, a one pound gummy bear, a hot chocolate bundle, chocolate dipped pretzels, a bow tie and action figure, a paint-by-number book and cardboard playhouse, a unique popcorn collection, and it's not Christmas without a pocket knife under the tree :) The final gift went to Chase--light-up light saber chopsticks; he can eat Chinese food in the dark now, if he wants to!

Such a cool place for the teens and twenties to hang out! They threw darts, they played pool, Aunt K showed off her skills at the pool table, a great time for them all :) My brother showed us his latest house project, which will be cool when it is complete. Miles showed off his new pajamas and sorted pokemon cards with Maga. The Acres is definitely the place to be! Merry Christmas, family!