Bell Family Christmas

The week before Christmas, we were able to get together with the Bell side and have a mini-Christmas celebration with all of our Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandma Bell of course.  It was such a fun weekend and we consider ourselves so lucky that we are still relatively close to each other and can still do these kind of fun things.  

We headed down to Willard on Saturday morning with two excited little kids.  We always love us some cousin time.  Especially when it involves getting/giving presents in the cousin gift exchange.  Poor Jonas was a little under the weather but he was such a trooper and still managed to have lots of fun as well.  

We arrived safely to Grandma Bell's house and played with cousins for a short while before it was time to eat lunch.  And this wasn't just ANY lunch.  This was Grandma Bell's "Yearly celebration of birthday's" lunch.  She usually treats us all to breakfast but since we were all arriving at different times of the day, lunch worked out better for everyone.  And I definitely think we need to make this our new-tradition.  It was a blast and everyone was satisfied and left happy and tired....which is a good thing with 11 cousins under the age of 6.  We met up at Incredible Pizza and even got to enjoy a few extra "Bell Family" members.  My Aunt/Uncle Kenny & Sharon, and cousin Kevin, and my Aunt Lorraine and cousin Sara and her cute little family.  The pizza was delicious and even more fun began after the food was eaten.  Little did I know that they had a HUGE arcade/play room in the back of the restaurant to help us burn off our energy.  It was getting close to nap time for a lot of the kids but with all those lights and noises, they managed to get a second wind and push through it.  We enjoyed playing in the kiddie arcades and watching the go-karts race around the track.  We even got to score some loot at the prize store with all of our ticket winnings.  You'd think the kids were at Disneyland as much as they were enjoying all the fun.  Again, one of many reasons why I think we should do this again next year!  Thanks Grandma Bell!!

After our delicious lunch, we all headed different directions for a few hours.  Some to the hotel to let kids nap, some to run errands and get some last minute Christmas gifts to exchange, and some back to Grandma's to crash for naps of their own.  Eventually, we all reunited back at Grandma's house for some more fun.

That evening we got to have the cousin gift exchange.  Do you know how difficult it is to ask all these little kids to HOLD a present and wait until it's their turn to open it?  Granted, we let them attack their Grandma present all at once (since they were all similar) but when it came time for their cousin present, we went from youngest to oldest and they all did so well patiently waiting their turn.  Aside from a few finger/hole pokes from the little guys but who can blame them?  Everyone was thrilled with their loot and ran off to play while the adults got to enjoy our annual game of Dirty Santa.  It's always a fun time except we never manage to get very "dirty" while playing it (i.e. stealing each other's gifts).  Well, except for John.  He is the one that willingly goes in for the kill every time.  He doesn't even care what he gets, he just wants to steal what another person says they want instead.  Sorry about that Cassie! ;o)  It always makes for some fun times and everyone enjoys it enough to do it again next year so apparently there are no hard feelings!

Sunday, we were able to visit Grandma Bell's sacrament meeting and rush back to her house and eat a quick lunch before everyone had to be on the road back home.  It was a great way to celebrate the holidays and a great time to catch up with everyone again.  Already looking forward to next year!