Annual holiday bash-1 of 3

Posts that is, not 3 bashes!
Have you ever seen the movie "My big fat Greek wedding"? Well, I don't see very many movies, but I have to admit, that this one is one of my all time favorites. The first time I saw it, a girl-friend got it, & invited a bunch of us girls over for a girls party, & we about laughed ourselves sick/silly over it! I like it partly because I can relate to it quite well. Our family's big and we're loud. We like to laugh too :)
Every year my step mom Jane, has us come to her place for a family get-together. Any and all of my siblings (4 of us) Our spouses, and our children (combined there's 26) plus their spouses (currently 5) Any current boy/girl friends of the children, the grandchildren (currently 7 and 1 on the way) My 2 uncles & aunts plus their families, my grandfather, and Jane's friend Jack are all invited Of course now there are some that are too far away to come, and with this many, we just pick a date that will work best for the majority.
This (post) is really a tribute to our lovely step mother, "G'ma Jane". She has been doing this for about 14 years now, and has carried on even tho our dad passed away away 8 years ago this fall. This year there were 36 of us. I don't know how other people's holidays are. We each have our own families traditions, gatherings, food & fun. None of my family celebrates with a tree or a huge pile of presents, so this is something we experience only at G'ma Jane's house. When we arrive for our evening of fun, (A couple days ago on Friday night,) This is pretty typical of what greets us:

and as fun as that looks, really our evening is full of far more. Before presents is a couple hours of eating, visiting, fun & clearing up from the yummy supper that she always makes for us.
Lynisha brought her beautiful & delicious sugar cookies to share.

G'ma Jane, & Jack. (I'm surprised that I got a picture of her sitting down, she's always waiting on all the rest of us!)


Cousins, games, visiting, goofing, laughter,

The 3 musketeers. Cousins & best friends, Landon, Rebecca & Meshayla.
Floyd & Jeanne....This was Floyd's first family holiday bash with this side of the family. He's probably asking her "What did I get myself into"?!!

Food, and the coffee is non-stop.


My niece & her dad


Leon with two of our son-in-laws and Jack with my Uncle Fay.
And, it's times like this I miss my dad the most. He loved family get-togethers, he loved watching his grandkids, he loved telling a story, and I think he was always amazed that Jane could pull this whole bash together so well!
(To be continued)