The Grandsons

Grammy and Grandpa with their 6 grandsons! Our best attempt of getting just the 6 of them!
Cole, Caleb with Grant, Mason, Carter with Brenner

The 4 big boys clowning around.

A glimpse at the craziness in trying to get just 1 good photo!

Santa Brenner

There's something so magical about a baby at Christmas. Brenner loved every bit of Christmas!

James Family Christmas

How many cousins fit on the riding toy? Well, we have 2 more we could have thrown on there!
Baby boys in the tub. It's James/Marek tradition to bathe with your cousin. Grant and Brenner had a wonderful time. In fact, Brenner was screaming when I took him out because he wanted to stay in the "bah."

The boys love making smores!

Grandpa and the baby boys watching for the train to come around the tree.

Grammy made us Christmas themed pancakes (using her Darth Vader spatula). Can you tell she's a Grammy of 6 boys?

Just hanging out was lots of fun. Brenner enjoyed crawling all over Stewart & Hunter and Shanan & Shannon.

I love that Brenner still plays with his feet.

This new toy is as big as Brenner!

All the boys unwrapping their gifts- chaos and fun!

Next is their stockings! Notice they are actually Santa sacks. Let's just say Shereda gets a little crazy when it comes to stockings. The babies were enjoying their new toys and did not want to leave them to open anything else.

Shereda taught Shanan and Stewart to make her yummy peanut brittle.

Success!

Brenner and Grant were so cute together this year. They would give each other a high 5 over and over. They had their moments of fighting over a toy, but I think there's a friendship in the making. Can't wait to get them together again.

Christmas Morning

Santa came to the lake house this year. We took our stockings and had all our gifts in Spicewood.
Caleb was thrilled to get an Itouch.
Carter got Harry Potter Hogwart's Express Lego train.

Brenner had a stocking filled with cereal bars. Just what he wanted!

The boys had so much fun looking at their gifts.

Both sets of grandparents were with us to watch the boys enjoy their gifts.

Brenner started to get the hang of opening gifts.

He was certainly more interested in the paper than the gifts.

Grammy made a yummy monkey bread breakfast that evidently baked too high. It still tasted great!

Nanny went right to work helping Carter set up his new Connect 4 game.

Grandpa and Papa worked to finish the Christmas puzzle. We finished this one and a 1000 piece puzzle during our time there.

Carter practiced skateboarding on the driveway.

Brenner enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen eating whatever we give him. This baby gets lots of attention! He will have to readjust quickly once we're home and it's just the 2 of us again!

Granny Gorham's Christmas at Cloverland

All dressed up for Christmas
Our whole family

My precious Granny

Gorham girls- Anna, Leah, and me. We missed Emily this year!

Little Brenner all ready for Christmas dinner

14 of the 18 great grandchildren are here!

My youngest cousin, Mark, (attending Baylor Fall 2011) is beloved by all the great grandkids. Here he is with Brenner playing with the balls. When Brenner saw me with the camera he stopped what he was doing to wave to me. Love that boy!

After dinner we all walk next door to my Granny's house. We all squeeze into her parlor. It's such a beautiful room. Santa stops by for a visit. All of the children (except one certain 17-month old) jumped on his lap for a visit and stuffed animal out of his sack. My boys love this tradition!

Merry Christmas!

Hope your Christmas is filled with sweet delights!

Cloverland Bowl

Papa wasn't going to play this year, but when he heard Caleb, Carter, and Kayla all wanted to play in the Cloverland Bowl he decided to join the draft. Caleb and Kayla were picked for the green team and Papa and Carter were on gold.

Caleb and Carter wore their BU RG3 jerseys. Steve was so excited to have his boys playing this year.

Here's the gold team!

And here's the green team!

Green vs. Gold

For a family with 17 Baylor graduates, this year's Cloverland Bowl was extra special knowing our Baylor Bears will be heading to the Texas Bowl on December 29th. This was flag football at it's finest. There is a draft before the game, the rules are set, and everyone has a great time. Caleb loved being in the middle of the fun. He is not an aggressive player, but he certainly wanted to have his turn catching the ball. Carter, on the other hand, was feisty and thrived on defense. He was a thorn in the QB's side- just pestering him the entire time. I think we have a future football player.

Opening Gifts with Nanny and Papa

Yesterday we opened gifts with my parents and my brother, SIL, and girls. I love this time with my family. We watch each other open their gifts and just enjoy every moment. My boys were excited about their new Legos and new skateboards. Brenner was also there, but happened to be napping during the gift opening. He got to see his gifts (mostly clothes) after he got up. I gave the girls sparkly, purple sequined hats that the guys had to try on. Don't they look tough? My favorite gifts: season tickets to DSO (thanks Mom and Dad) and a wonderfully edited video of Brenner's birth (big thanks to Emily! And, yes it's edited for public viewing- although she also gave me the x-rated version as well)

Winkelmann Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family- the Winkelmanns. Mamaw gave Brenner his nighttime bottle. I love this photo of him in his great-grandmother's arms.
Mamaw and Papaw have nine great grandchildren. Andy and I have three female cousins who have daughters. I am the only one with boys.

Here is Mamaw and Papaw with the grandchildren and great grandchildren.

We ate our traditional meal of Mexican casserole, salad, chips/dips and the homemade banana split cake. We opened gifts and just spent time hanging out and catching up.