Christmas 2016

Oh boy am I ever ready to see the end of 2016! Now that we made it through the holidays the end is in sight. After the recent deaths in the family I was curious if Christmas was going to be sad or have more of a grateful tone, luckily it was totally the latter. The holiday really started with the performance of a cantata in the church choir on the 18th. I didn't particularly like this cantata - it was another contemporary rendition (rock band) of classics and some new annoying songs. I'm glad it's over.

I wrapped up all of the work stuff I needed to finish by Thursday afternoon. With Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, the office was closed for the Monday after. There wasn't much to do the Friday before, so they closed the office early then. I opted to take off the next 2 days as well, so I wrapped up work on a Thursday and go back in the following Thursday for a 2 day week! Nice when it works out like that.

Monday before was Kelley's birthday! We had kid stuff to do that night so it wasn't a big deal then but we did stuff throughout the week to celebrate. Tuesday night we took Ella to see Rogue One and she loved it. Quite the fantastic Star Wars Story indeed. Wednesday night I got Kelley four tickets to go see our favorite comic (Andy Woodhull) at a local comedy club. Andy swims on my RAM team and is nationally known. I bought 4 tickets so we could take another couple and then couldn't find anybody else who was available to go with us. One of those couples hosted a Christmas party Thursday night, which was a blast. So it was an eventful week to start things off!

The Birthday Girl on monday night

Wednesday night in Goodnight's Comedy Club

Being all sweet with our Mr and Mrs mugs

Saturday night we had the Maness family Christmas, which is always in Biscoe on Christmas Eve. We had a much larger turnout this year than last year which was fantastic! Given the two recent deaths in that side of the family I wasn't sure who would be avoiding. Meri was there, we got to spend a lot of time with her. And our niece came down to our house for a few great days.

Ella getting presents

Such a large group. The kids make it fun

 This year we ended up finishing the festivities pretty early! This worked out well for the kids. Instead of them getting home at 11:30 and trying to go to sleep while all riled up, we got back at 9 pm and had an easy time going to sleep peacefully.

Santa Claus paid a visit to the children, and once again that fat bastard didn't leave me anything. The kids racked up Sunday morning though.

the haul

Happy with her funny calendar

Neena playing with the kids

Kelley setting up toys

Matt and Kaileigh

Kelley's sister Meri

the mermaid tail snuggie? loved it.

The whale tail snuggie was a big hit too

We had Kelley's mom and sister stay with us, as well as our niece Kaileigh and her boyfriend Matt. Then Kelley's dad and stepmom came over as well so we had a full 10 people stacked up in our living room that only seats 4 at the moment! crazy times with a large family setting is what makes the holiday special for us.

After breakfast and all of those gifts, we packed up the 4 of us and headed to Greenville to see my parents. It was an easy drive, but we had a tough time finding a lunch spot that was open on Christmas day (no surprise). Michael beat us there, it was great to see everybody again! Then on Monday we did our traditional Flynn Christmas breakfast.

Martha, Morgan, Michael and Summer - my brothers and sisters-in-law

Mom handing out presents with my kids

My sweet young niece in a Chewbacca mask

Then later we had the entire clan on Mom's side of the family over later that afternoon. It's such a large group, we even had my cousin Anna (complete with husband and new baby) in from DC! This time there were multiple babies, lots of cousins, and tons of food. Lots of really good southern food.

All of the babies loved hanging with my bigger kids

Our couch

Terrible picture of that side of the room! why is everyone staring at the gifts?

After that ended it was too late to go anywhere. We waited until Tuesday to drive back to Raleigh, giving the kids and cousins another morning to play. Everyone had a good time, and we had light traffic getting home. Really nice, I also had Wednesday off of work to unwind a bit from all of that holiday-ing. Unfortunately, I also brought back a sinus infection (just like after Thanksgiving but not as severe) so most of my day off was spent being sick.

Overall this was a wonderful holiday season. The kids got everything they wanted and then some, and it was filled with joy, family, and love. I wouldn't have it any other way. This year's family portraits:

Christmas eve at our house, normal

and typical. Man those kids are getting big!

Our tree was loaded down with all those gifts!

In Greenville SC