Partied Out!

Last week was FUN at the troops.

*Tuesday the girls high-school basketball team came for lunch after a morning scrimmage.  Their coach is SO handsome!  (grin)  They ate lasagna and played Nerf basketball in my living room and Little Man ate up all of the attention from those pretty girls!

*Tuesday night, one of the Coach's older brothers and his family arrived at my in-laws up the street - he's the only one of the 10 who doesn't live close by.

*Wednesday found all of us (kids, especially) going back and forth from my in-laws to see them, visit, and trade kids.  Loved watching the pack of boys play football in the yard!  Cousins are the best!

*Wednesday night we were SO excited to be given tickets to go to the Thunder/Clippers game downtown.  Four of ours had never been!  Winning in overtime just added to the fun.  I won't mention whose dancing ended up on the jumbo-tron, but his name starts with C and ends with Y and he may or not be the Coach's younger brother.

*Thursday we were back at the annual extended family Thanksgiving Day gathering.  Not sure how many were there, but it was quite a group!  The Coach and his siblings were all together for the first time in. . . something like 3 years?  Longer?  I'm not sure.  Want to see?  In this photo they are lined up youngest to oldest with their parents in the middle.

We didn't attempt one with the grandkids (55 + 3 spouses + 2 great-grandbabies).  Several were with in-laws or away at school, so it would have been incomplete (and loud!).  But here are the 10 kids with their spouses.

Have I mentioned how much I love this family?  I grew up with two brothers (whom I love, dearly), but the addition of sisters (on both sides) has been a joy for me!  I have 11 of them!  :-)  My brothers-in-law are pretty great, too.

*On Friday we loaded up our troops (minus the Coach and Daughter #2 who had basketball practice) and headed to the farm house for a family day.  Sunshine, cool weather, leaves blowing, coffee, hot chocolate, snacks. . . ranger rides, skeet shooting, bonfire with marshmallows. . . good times.

(Little Man is on the laptop and just asked for my credit card.  I'm worried.)

*Friday night we continued the party at my extremely brave sister-in-law's house for pizza, football, and Duck Dynasty episodes (some of them hadn't seen it before, can you believe it?).

*Saturday found us back at home, with cousins here to play, Christmas decorations all over the place. . . then over to another sis-in-law's (again - BRAVE) house with our crew plus some to watch the bedlam game and partake of yet another round of SNACKS.  Ha!  The younger kids rode the horse and played with the dogs and ran around like wild indians while we "older folk" - teens included - watched the game.  Another overtime win - crazy!

So Sunday seemed awfully quiet with "only" church and Sunday lunch with just our troops.  Son #3 is the Christmas decoration master - he helped me finish up inside and helped the Coach work on outside lights, too.

It seemed oddly quiet when the troops headed off for school this morning. . .

But the piles and lists were ready for some attention.  FUN week, but time to get going on Christmas shopping, groceries and meal planning, laundry . . . you know, real life.  Except made more cheery by a visit from a sis-in-law bearing happy, red Starbucks cups this morning.

Happy Monday!