Still Enjoying Christmas...in July!

I just had to show you the one of the few Christmas presents that Lily is still enjoying on a regular basis...even on July 25th.

She likes to dress up in it and wear it to bed too. Isn't it the cutest nightgown? Ever?
I wish I could drop you a link so you could get your own. It was handmade by my Aunt Janeen though and I don't think she's taking orders. (Ahem...Janeen, are you?)

Let me give you a little history. My dad is the oldest of six kids. Out of those 6 kids came 10 grand kids. The majority of them live in WI, but some are in MI and we of course are in TX. Needless to say, we don't ALL get together very often, so when we do it is very special.

It became even more special as we (the cousins) started having kids. As of Christmas of 2004, we had given my grandparents 5 great granddaughters. The TX and MI crews made it to WI for Christmas and guess want fun idea Aunt Janeen came up with?

Here you see the FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS...all in handmade matching PJs! Lily is the 3 month old on the far right. My niece Avery is the 15 month old in the center.

Fast forward to this past Christmas 2007. The number of great-grandkids had doubled to 10...and finally there was a boy. ONE BOY...out of 10. Yeah, I'm pretty much thinking we should just go ahead and stop after 2 girls. My cousin Allison has FOUR girls.
Anyways, we joked about doing a 10 Little Indian theme and having Nolan (the little boy pictured above at the far bottom left), be the chief, but the monkey theme was too cute to resist doing again.

Above: lining them up. Below: parading out to their great-grandma. (sadly, my grandpa had passed away just two weeks before)

They each got their own classic sock monkey from great-grandma.

Here is the whole crew...at the girl scout center in Beaver Dam, WI where we had the event. Did you notice their little monkey slippers too? Those came from from Aunt Cathy.
Lily and Jade are at the bottom left. Avery is at the top right.

It was very memorable, and I've been meaning to post about it for...well, seven months now...so why not Christmas in July?

I'm not sure when we will all be able to get together again. There are two more babies due this fall...and you guessed it...BOTH GIRLS...so there will be at least 12 next go round...any theme ideas?

Honestly, it has taken me these 7 months to even have the desire to go back. We had quite an eventful trip there this last time. Not only did it include the usual vacation disasters like delayed flights and lost luggage, but also things like:

the Milwaukee airport closing while we were in route due to heavy snow fall, being on the same stinking plane 4 x longer than the scheduled flight time of two hours, and a fun stomach virus that went through the whole family like wildfire. We were just hoping it would make it to Bret Favre before the Super Bowl.

If you're interested, here is the original post:

Wisconsin Trip: The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Ugly

I don't recommend reading it if you are about to go on vacation with little ones...speaking of little ones, my monkeys are waking up from nap...talk to ya later.