Reunion Time!

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, we had a Gold family reunion here in Amarillo. All of my siblings and their families were able to come -- 28 of us total! It doesn't happen very often that we are all together. (My sister just did a blog post about our reunion and I promise I didn't steal her idea -- we obviously think alike and I'm just slow!)

My parents are building a house here close to us and invited everyone to come over the holiday. The house wasn't quite finished to the point they thought it would be, but it was livable and everybody managed to find somewhere to sleep (even if it was on an air mattress down on the basement concrete floor).

It was great to see everyone and despite the chaos that often results when so many people get together, it was a lot of fun. The weather was fairly chilly and windy so we mostly just stayed inside and did various activities, such as:

Lots and lots of playing games:

Lots of playing the Wii:

Watching movies:

Reading:

Eating!

We had a huge feast on New Year's Eve.

Playing with cousins:

These cousins discovered they had matching new pajamas!

Taking pictures and video:

And just overall hanging out and visiting.

On New Year's Eve, we had the aforementioned feast, plus a special family home evening where we exchanged late Christmas presents, listened to my parents, and played a huge game of Pictionary (that we even got Grandma to participate in!). I think almost everybody managed to stay up until midnight.

I'm so glad everyone was able to come and spend some time together. Families are wonderful!