Merry Six-Mas!

There are many highs and lows of having divorced and remarried families. One of the great things is having a lot of grandparents to choose from when you need a babysitter. There is also the awesomely large family we have. Jon and I both have 4 siblings (blood, half and step combind). Add in all the nieces and nephews and you can imagine how much family we have!

At Christmas, we find ourselves splitting events so that we can fit in all sides of the family. This year, we will have 6 Christmas celebrations.

The first one took place this weekend. We went to San Diego to celebrate with Jon's Mom and sisters family. This was a huge treat as we have never been able to celebrate with his Mom. She came out from indiana to have her first Christmas ever with her 2 children and 5 grandchildren. She loved every minute of it. The kids enjoyed getting to share their joy with her for the first time. It was an awesome brunch and a wonderful day spent with that side of the family.

Last night was round 2. We went to La Canada to have our annual pre-Christmas dinner/trivia party with my Dad and brother's families. This was out 20th year of doing this! We exchange a few gifts and my dad makes a trivia game about all the years events. I came in third which stunk BUT I did win a picture frame and some Altoids which are both very useful for me. We were expected at 5. We left early to avoid traffic and were subsequently a bit early. We took advantage of the daylight by driving all though the hills where I grew up. We saw my grandmas old house, the tree where my grandpa had his car accident, some enormous houses and a few spots the kids wanted to see (the hospital where I was born and the pizza place where we would go after games...which is now a skateboard shop) It was a good night!

On Christmas Eve, we will celebrate at my grandma's house with the rest of the Fazzi family. This year we are breaking tradition and going out to dinner in the Newport Harbor. The theory is, that saves cleanup time and we get more time to enjoy the gifts before the kids get too tired.

Christmas morning we have our own celebration at home with just the 4 of us. Nothing out of this world, but we open Santa's gifts and exchange amongst ourselves. It is just a nice morning to stay in our jammies and be together.

Late in the day we go to Jon's Dad's house for dinner and gift exchange (whoever decided to draw names at this event is a saint as his 3 sisters each have 3 kids! To many to shop for!) My mother-in-law always gets the most fabulous tamales. And in addition to dessert, there is always something special for the 3 birthday girls on Dec. 24th, 25th and 29th.

And a few days after Christmas we go to my Mom's to combind her and Megan's birthdays with Christmas with her and my siblings. The past few years my sister has flown home from New York to be with us which is awesome. She comes in on Sunday!!! We do a fun thing at my Mom's where instead of exchanging gifts, we do an ornament exchange. Each year we pick a theme for the following year. Every person brings a wrapped ornament. They go in a pile and then we each get to pick one. This year our theme is Angels.

It may seem like a lot to some, however it is what we are used to. We run around all season seeing everyone and then crash on New Years Day! So this year, we wish you a Merry Six-Mas!