And the party came in.

To my dear family,

Wow. I love y'all so much. I'm glad we have family Christmases that would scare the socks off most people, but for us makes fantastic memories for the rest of the year. (Incidentally, how on earth did four of my siblings get married? We're tons of fun, but we can be super intimidating to prospective spouses, I would imagine.)

I love that we can't get five words out without someone else interrupting because theycantellitwaybetter. Actually, I don't love it. But it makes us unique, I suppose. And we are working on it. Promise. I love that we can trash a house quicker than any other family, (check out the picture if you don't believe me,) and then clean it up twice as fast, thanks to Karen and Mama. Karen, you get a special shout out. We owe so much neatness and order and clean dishes to you. And I love that we can at least shake the roof with our conversations and laughter. Maybe not raise it, but definitely shake it. I love that mama can totally beat me with her stilt walking skills. As in, I'm really, really bad at it, and she can do a little dance, while singing, on them. Yeah.

I thank God for all of you, individually, and as a large, talkative, loving, teasing group. Our Heavenly Father has been so good to each of us, to give us His Son as our surety and hope when everything else, even family, isn't enough. He always is enough - and He has blessed us beyond measure.























p.s. I know that some of you don't know my oldest brother, Jacob. Well, that's him in all his handsomeness in the first picture. He looks a lot like Daddy.