CHRISTMANS

Can I just say I love family vacations? First of all, my family is really something else. Secondly, I got to get to know 8 new Christmans this past week! My grandpa's brother turned 70 a few days ago, so everyone got their butts over to his place in North Carolina for a couple days of family and celebration. I don't think I've ever had a family reunion, especially not for my dad's side of the family, and it was beyond great. Stan and his wife Pat live in the most gorgeous community with stunning 360˚ mountain views. One of the days, the boys (Sam, my dad, his dad, & Stan) went golfing and Pat drove my mom and me around their neighborhood to look at all the beautiful (and insanely big) houses. It reminded me of when I was getting my driver's license and my driving instructor had me drive to Katie Holmes' house in Toledo. 

Flat Rock, NC isn't a big town at all, but we had lunch at this great restaurant with fire-grilled pizzas. We ordered chicken pesto and wild mushroom.

There were many 4-person games on Stan's Simpson's pin ball machine.

I made it on the leader board!! It's not as impressive when you know that Stan's record is 118 million.

We had birthday dinner at the main clubhouse and it had a gorgeous huge veranda with views over the golf course.

We all wore black armbands to commemorate his aging haha.

Yo dog.

I learned the different between first cousins and a cousin once-removed, but I can't be bothered to decipher all our relationships so basically, everyone's my cousin if they're similar in age and an uncle if they're older than me. It was so great to meet Elisa and her husband Isaac. They live in California but we connected on facebook a few years back. My family is spread out as much as you possibly could be in the states so we rarely get to be all together.

Grace and me in our matching t-shirts from Ashville, NC :]

Christmans taking pictures of Christmans

Doug's family

The grrlz

The boiz, with a half badass pose.

My dad brought his banjo and backpack guitar so he and Jim had a great jam session. One night all the kids + Isaac and my mom got ice cream in Hendersonville (I had blueberry with graham cracker, that's what's up) and Sam unleashed the nastiest silent but deadly in the van on the way back and I was crying with laughter/pain from the smell. Fart jokes never get old, don't tell me otherwise.

We all agreed we must do more get togethers like this. Who knows where next, but I'm already excited to see everyone again.