Cousins

My dad only has one sister, so on his side of the family I have a total of five cousins.  We grew up spending Sunday's at my grandma's house and always saw each other for the holidays.  As we have all grown and now have families of our own, we don't get together very often but our Christmas tradition remains.  This year the party was at my house.

After a Mexican fiesta dinner, the adults all settled in to play "Deal or No Deal".  It started off as fun and games but everyone got a lot more serious when they found out that real money was involved.  I think my dad, aka the banker, was starting to sweat it when everyone's luck seemed to be good.  He bought off most everyone, but one of my cousins did walk away with $75.  Not bad!

While the adults were trying to earn their Christmas money, the kids were downstairs preparing a Nativity.  Two of the older cousins did the organizing and the whole thing turned out amazing.

Kanden and Gavin,
Totally normal for Joseph to hang out with a sheep, right

Brycen was so excited to be an angel,
He's been Joseph one too many times. 

The whole party

The best baby Jesus ever
With his favorite Mary and cow

When we were young, my grandma and grandpa Childs spent their winters in Yuma, Arizona and would send us a Pinata from Mexico.  My mom would save the Pinata to break on Christmas day with my cousins at my grandma and grandpa Horrocks' house.  A few years ago I decided it would be fun to bring the tradition back for the new generation of cousins.  There was a lot of wild swinging, and a few near misses, but we made it through another year with no mishaps.

Clearly these kids were excited with their loot.

Taylor is always such a good sport
To humor the little kids
No wonder they think he is so great!

These two were exhausted
After all of the festivities