Eight is Enough!: Braden's Family

Family Christmas Party

To start off, trying to get a family of this size together all at the same time is truly a challenge. This was the first time in 10 years that EVERYBODY in the family actually got together at the same time. The occasion? My youngest child (son) was getting ready to leave on an LDS mission. His farewell was Thanksgiving weekend so we got to kill two birds (no pun intended) with one stone. Then trying to get everybody together again for our family Christmas party was sort of a joke. We started a tradition in our family a couple of years ago, to have a "White Elephant" gift exchange for Christmas. With a family this size you can understand how expensive it would be to buy real gifts for everyone or even draw names. So the "White Elephant" plan seems to work really well, and it sure as heck is a lot more fun!

This year the prize for the "best" gift went to my daughter, Angela, AKA atwistedsister. Actually she brought two of equal bestness. They also were the last ones picked so it worked out very well. My two oldest sons, Shane and Dustin, ended up getting the two prizes which happened to be identical except for the color. Now, DI or Deseret Industries is a great place to shop for "White Elephants". Here is a picture of them in their new Christmas outfits: