Bates Open House 2009

We had our annual Christmas Open House at Papa & Grammie Bates on December 13th. Since our family is growing Grammie has passed on the honor of Christmas Day to Trina (Alex's Mom) and Grammie and Papa have started doing their Christmas on a different day of the month, usually about 2 week before Christmas. We LOVE this! It's a great opportunity for the family to get together and have a lot of fun, enjoy each other's company and spend Christmas together. It makes for one less stop on Christmas day (which I appreciate so much!) and it also makes the Christmas celebration a little bit longer, stretching it out through the month of December.

Grammie & Papa Bates (Alex's Grandparents)

If there is one thing that Alex's Grammie has perfected it is the art of cooking. She is an amazing cook and we all love her food. We did a pretty good job of cleaning up the spread too! :)

Grammie playing Santa and handing out the gifts to all the kids.

Ethan got a new Train/Car table for his room!

Emma got a new digital (child proof) camera. It was a BIG hit! She walked around taking pictures all night long (a total of 246 to be exact!). Oh boy am I in trouble...I can hardly keep up with my photos and blogging now I have to add her pics too! :)

Speaking of Photo Shoot's here are just a few of the pics Emma took that night! I love some of the expressions she was able to capture! :)

As a tradition we always play White Elephant after the other gifts are opened. Alex's Papa is an amazing at working with wood, especially when it comes to turning wood on the lathe. Throughout the year he makes all kinds of stuff like salt and pepper shakers, bowls, candle holders, cutting boards, plates, etc. We then draw numbers and pick bags/boxes containing these items and proceed to steel from each other all night to see who gets the best and most coveted gift! Alex ended up with a Cutting Board and I got a beautiful pair of Wine Glasses.

As usual it was a great evening full of fun. Thanks Grammie and Papa for having it!