Stockton Christmas 2005

Andrew's extended family (mom's side) lives in Stockton, CA and that's where we were celebrating together this year. We have a tradition that everyone, and I mean everyone, gets together on x-mas eve for the gift exchange (we had about 45 people there this year; luckily, we were in a fairly large house).

Another tradition that Andrew's family holds is something called PICKS, which is one of my most favorite things about x-mas with the Lee family. PICKS is exclusively for the ladies...ladies with their own household or anyone married. Here's how it works...all the gals who are participating bring enough gifts for everyone else, so if there are 15 girls alltogether, including you, then you need at least 14 of something, and it can be anything.
We all gather around a bed-a king size works best, but we work with what we have. The anticipation builds as we wait for the first "pick" of the night. Anyone can go first, so someone just shouts out to let us know it's coming and then she just dumps her items on the bed and we all dive in to get the one that we want. As you can guess, depending on who you are standing next too, it can be a very dangerous game and you have to be quite aggressive to get what you want. This year, Ozella and I were on the floor rolling around for a notepad!! It was hilarious!

We continue on until everyone has given their picks out. It is like getting two extra stockings--we rake in a lot of stuff!
Sunday morning, we went to church and then headed over to Aunt Cheryl's house to celebrate the "Martin Family" x-mas. Elias, our nephew was perfectly dressed for the occassion.

Isn't he so cute?
We ate lunch together, then dove into opening stockings and presents. It was fun to watch Eli open presents for the first time--he loved taking off the paper.


Grandpa and Grandma Lee were there with us and, for the time they were awake, had fun watching us open our gifts.

While we were in Stockton, we stayed with Andrew's cousin, Amy, her husband, Brian, and their four children--John, Noah, Luke, and Hannah. Hannah is just 3 months old and I spent a lot of time holding her...she is so sweet. Here she is in her x-mas outfit.

And here she is with me, just chillin' in the recliner.

We had a great time with "the fam" in Stockton and we always really enjoy staying with Amy and Brian--we laugh so much with them! It was a blessing for all of us to be together, have adequate time to relax and eat at "In-and-Out Burger" (I love that place!).
Hope you all had a great x-mas too!