Second Christmas

Some of you may be familiar with the little tradition that we have among the Furedy/ Singer/ Woodard clan that we lovingly call... Second Christmas.

Second Christmas began about 6 years ago or so, when our collaborative clan started getting so large that Christmas shopping began in June and consumed at least one entire paycheck during the month of December (you think I am exaggerating, but seriously, NOT EXAGGERATING).  The entire group got together and discussed what we could do to alleviate the shopping and budgetary strain (bet you wish you could have been a fly on the wall during THAT conversation).  A couple of key ideas emerged from our talk that day... we decided that kids should all get gifts, but that the adults would draw names.... and that one of the key things that we all wanted most was to spend more time together.  And we REALLY wanted to spend time together- away from the day to day routine of life in Phoenix/ Tucson (again, not sure what we were thinking at the time...). As one-quarter of the group is always gone for several weeks in December (the Furedy/Singer clan always heads back East to hang with Paige's family over the holidays) we also needed to find a time after Christmas that would work for us all to have an extended period of time together.

So, each year since, we have gone on a trip together over the long weekend in January that includes the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.  This allows us to have a Friday evening through Monday afternoon extended weekend (enough time to enjoy each other, but not get on each others nerves... at least not too much).

Year One we all stayed in a hotel, with Grandma Paulette and Grandpa Steve's timeshare as our 'home base'.  This was a nice first attempt, but resulted in a difficult weekend of trying to figure out who was where and what we were doing and when-  all conducted by cell phone because we weren't in the same place (yep, not fun).  We were also forced into eating every meal in a restaurant (and since Colin was a toddler at the time also means that I don't think I sat down to eat a meal even once while we were there).

Here's a picture of Vanessa helping Julia try on her flower girl dress for her wedding
(which would take place the following Spring)
during our inaugural 2nd Christmas...

Year Two upgraded to a bed and breakfast in Tucson- we ended up renting out the entire place.  What can I say about that trip other than... yeah... bed and breakfasts are NOT made for groups of our size and makeup.  I think the owners about had a heart attack before the weekend was over because we (hold on to your hats folks) used their kitchen to fix a dessert.   They were also stressed out by our kids the entire weekend (and if our really well-behaved kids stress you out, well... you just might have a problem). We were also still tied to a lot of restaurant eating...

Here's Joe, Paige and Gundry enjoying our snow hike on Mt. Lemmon during Year Two....

Year Three upgraded us to renting a house in Flagstaff, which we have done every year since.  I won't say that this has been without it's share of issues (and family disagreements and one major all out family war that I am still not sure that we've ever totally recovered from..) but over all, the house rental has been a successful approach that allows us to spend time together, cook our own meals, play endless board games and of course celebrate Christmas (yep, the whole thing, a tree, and presents and all). 

Here are a few photos of our rather enjoyable 2nd Christmas of 2011.... (here I will apologize in advance for the lack of photos of Aunt Bic, Great Grandma Miriam (GG) and of course Joe, plus limited representation of Jason and Mike... not sure why, but they seem to be lacking in my photos.  We do LOVE you guys...)

The house... a delightful rental from VRBO...

 

Let the Second Christmas Begin......

 

Grandma Paulette and Grandpa Steve

G-man

Aunt Paige and her camera...

  

Aunt Vanessa and the best part of 2nd Christmas #6,

The addition of Cora to our family...

 

Miss Cora enjoying some blueberries... 

One of the best moments of the trip was getting to rock this little one to sleep.  What fun....

 

Julia goofing around...

 

Celebrating Eric's birthday with apple pie 

and one rock awesome card...

Asher catching some air...

 

And of course, a rocking game of Pictionary...

 

It is a great tradition, and one that I hope we will enjoy for years to come.  Sounds like next year we will be checking out the Showlow area for a different house (Aunt Vanessa is already hunting for us...).  Despite the ups and downs and ins and outs of getting 17 people together for a weekend, it's a weekend that I wouldn't trade for the world (and I'm happy that my kids just take 2nd Christmas for granted... like everyone in the world celebrates Christmas all over again in January...).

Night all...

C

PS  10 days to go.  :)