As I write this from my mother-in-law’s dining room (this is being posted a week and a half later), there are 5 little children and a few adults gathered around the kitchen island as she rolls out dough and prepares cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It’s quiet right now, but as the minutes tick by more and more people will make their way into the kitchen.  I imagine them looking back fondly on memories of these early mornings with their grandparents and cousins. If you have been around me for any amount of time, you know that I love my family, I love making memories, and I love traditions.

As an adult, I get especially excited for an extended Denner Christmas. It only happens every other year because of the distance; coming from 5 different states siblings and their families travel back to Illinois to spend Christmas together. My husband keeps saying, “Merry Chaos!” And he’s not wrong. Each time all of the Denners are together it feels a little wilder, but also very special.  My husband, Philip, is the second oldest of nine.

There is a 20-year spread between the oldest and the youngest; currently ranging from 33 down to 12. 5 of the 9 siblings are now married. I remember my first Christmas with them when Phil and I were engaged. I look back on it and laugh because I found it to be a bit overwhelming….and at the time I was the only extra person. Right now, we are all able to squeeze into Phil’s parents’ home, but it continues to get more and more crowded. My daughter, Isabel, is 4 and ½ years old and she is the oldest grandchild. There are 10 grandchildren after her with more on the way.

It isn’t very often that we are all able to be in the same place at the same time, so when we are, we really cherish the time. Despite the distance, everyone is close, and we all get along pretty well. This year has been extra special for me, since I have another little one to add in to the bunch. Everyone arrived at different times, but we were all there before Christmas Eve. The kids have spent hours in the basement playing together and running around the house together. A lot of us enjoy playing games, cooking or baking, singing and just spending time together.

We typically all dress up and go out for a nice dinner before attending the Christmas Eve service, but this year we waited to do that meal until the 26th because of involvement in different services. Most of us were able to make it to a Christmas Eve service together and then we went home for our traditional Christmas Eve events. Everyone changed into our matching red and black Christmas pajamas and there was soup and a charcuterie board for snacking. We set out trays of Christmas cookies and peppermint bark and prepared a hot chocolate bar.

Phil’s family has had hot chocolate on Christmas Eve for years, but recently Phil and I have enjoyed making the homemade chocolate (Try our favorite recipe here) and putting together the toppings. Ever since Phil was a kid, his family would watch Christmas movies (Always White Christmas and then some other Christmas movies) and sleep in the living room. After getting most of the kids settled (we allowed Isa to join us for a bit this year), we got settled in the living room with blankets and treats to watch White Christmas. Most of us don’t sleep downstairs anymore, but a few of the younger siblings do and dad often does.

When we awoke in the morning you could almost feel the buzz of excitement downstairs as more people woke up.  We all gathered in the family room, and then some of the kids would go and bring a pile or two of presents at a time from the living room (we keep them in the other room because of how crowded it gets when we are all together). Most years we’ve opened our stockings first, but this year we did gifts. One of the most exciting parts has been that as we get older, we’ve been able to go in together on some pretty special gifts for Phil’s parents! We also do a siblings (and spouses) gift exchange and then the little ones got a few gifts, of course. After we finished opening gifts, we had brunch and the kids got busy playing!

For dinner on Christmas day, we had a mini-Italian feast. An Italian feast is a tradition that Phil’s family has done for years, the Sunday before Christmas, but more recently they have done it on different days to accommodate for when people are around and available. They are not Italian, but the tradition began after they used to go out to an Italian restaurant and eat family style.  After it got too expensive, my mother-in-law decided to figure out how to make the dishes herself and created a feast out of it! I think it’s a tradition we all appreciate, and this year there were stuffed mushrooms, fried mozzarella, and salad for an appetizer, and then a few Italian dishes including lasagna, baked ziti, chicken parmesan, and chicken broccoli Alfredo. Yum!

The day after Christmas we all went out to lunch for Mexican food and enjoyed an afternoon back at the house together. One of the evenings, we spent some time singing Christmas carols, initiated by my daughter using the Christmas carols from her school curriculum. For the first time, we also had a family planning day where babysitters watched the older grandkids while we got together to discuss vision, our gifts, and planning for some future ideas. Most of us were here for about a week together and the time has gone by so quickly. I feel so blessed to be married into the Denner family and am so thankful for the special memories both of my kids will have growing up with so many aunts, uncles and cousins! We are counting down the months until we all see each other again.