One of my favorite Christmas traditions is getting together with my mom's side of the family. Growing up, we always gathered with them on Christmas Eve. Running around with my cousins and hearing my mom, aunt, and Grandma cackle as they opened their gifts. It was just a magical time. And while our traditions may have changed, our time with them being magical has not!
We all managed to meet a few days after Christmas at my sisters house. All my cousins and their significant others, my aunts and uncles, and my grandpa all came out. And to add a little more magic to this year- we all wore tacky Christmas sweaters!! It was a fun twist on our already fun get together! Of course, most of our get together revolves around food and based in the kitchen, but we did take some time to do family pictures before our traditional Ornament Exchange!
The whole Smreker family, including Toby, the dog!
My family!
The Bade families (my cousin Ryan on the left and my cousin Courtney on the right)
The Cook and Smreker families. (my cousin Chris on the right) Funny story- my Grandpa "won" our tacky sweater party! He took his rattiest hoodie, and added red glittery ribbon to the waist, curling ribbon to the elbows, and his hat even had a sparkly poinsettia clip! It was hilarious!!
My adorable Mom and Dad. I'm so lucky to have them!
And our little family!
After we ate every crumb of snacks, we started our ornament exchange. 23 ornaments in all!! We ended up with the Creepy Baby ornament (which I must get a picture of!) which meant that we got the surprise gift! Which just so happened to be a beautiful box of vintage inspired ornaments! Lucky us- well, Grant picked Creepy Baby!
While my Grandma will always be missed at our gatherings, I know she was smiling down from Heaven, seeing us all enjoying each others company and keeping the magic of our family gatherings alive! These people make me look forward to the day we move back to Kansas City, whenever that may be!
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