Merry Christmas...

It seems incredible to me that Christmas has already come and gone, given how little merriment and festivity has been present in my life this year given the demands of our impending move, but nevertheless, the holiday arrived and I traveled down to White Hall to celebrate in the customary style with all the branches and twigs of the Wyatt family tree. We gathered at Seton Hall, feasted on a truly ridiculous amount of food (a whole turkey was prepared that didn't get finished in time to eat, leaving us with an entire leftover bird), played a revamped version of our annual Bingo game, and watched the ever-growing number of children at play. Here are a few images from the day:

Mya spent the day chasing around the various dogs in attendance, and calling them all "Harlo," even though her dog, Harley, was left at home. This is her playing with Jack, my cousin Danielle's dog.

I swear, this photo of Dad and Chris isn't staged, but whatever Dad is saying, Chris' reaction is priceless.

I seriously love watching all my cousins' kids play together. They're closer in age than I was to my cousins growing up, and it warms the cockles of my heart to see them forging friendships with one another.

This year's attempt at getting all the kids into one photo was kind of a flop. Jalen and Will flat-out refused to participate, Mya was busy taking off her shoes, and Charlee cried. I think Braden (far left) had the appropriate reaction to the mayhem.

Will apparently has a soft-spot for babies, and I frequently caught him in utterly adorable moments with his cousin Charlee.

Mom and Dad called the Bingo game again this year, and we changed our prizes to $25 gift cards, plus an additional monetary prize furnished by my parents, in lieu of the generic gifts we used in the past. I feel that the gift cards were a much better solution, and I didn't end up with another Snuggie.

In fact, I made out like gangbusters this year. I finally got the Home Depot gift card I joking told Justin to request from everyone this year for Christmas, plus, I won the $100 jackpot! Of course, this led to allegations of the game being rigged, since my parents' furnished the prize, but I assure you, the prizes were completely random. Also, I'm wearing my beautiful Christmas present from Justin -- an amethyst necklace.

Mom and I, getting our purple on for the second holiday this year.

Even if it snuck up on me this year, it was so good to have a little slice of normalcy in what has otherwise been a holiday season largely lacking in its usual traditions. These moments of family solidarity are made even more precious by the knowledge that, going forward, I will have to start dividing up the holidays between Justin's family and mine. I won't get to be with my extended family every year any more, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make in building a life with the man I love. He'll get to experience the craziness that is the Wyatt family Christmas, and I'll get to learn about how his family celebrates this time of year. There will be change, and compromise ahead of us, but I'm looking forward to merging our lives in this way, and becoming part of each other's families in the years to come.