McAfee Christmas (aka the loudest Christmas ever)

We had a full weekend of McAfee Christmases the weekend before Christmas.  Saturday afternoon was the BIG McAfee Christmas.  And by big I mean 62 McAfee's in one location.  It was complete chaos, people.   It was loud...it was hot (since it was like a spring day outside) & it was crowded.  I tried to keep to myself as much as possible.  The McAfee's are huggers & I was just recovering from my near death stomach bug so I didn't want to take any chances.  When they came at me with arms outspread I would say, "Ohhhh, you don't wanna hug me.  I've been sick this past week..."   

 Sadly, my partner in crime buddy Alicia was also recovering from the flu so she wasn't able to be there.  But her extremely entertaining kids were there & I took great pleasure in sending her updates of all their antics.  She's a great sport about stuff like that & I knew it would make her feel better to hear my commentary on it all...  I'm a giver, remember?

I told Daniel I was sending his wife updates on their children.  Of course, he's a good sport too & laughed it off.  He got me back though when he told my arch nemesis Sam how my name is spelled. 

 "Sam, do you know how to spell Jaime?  It's spelled J-A-M-I-E!"  

And then I had to listen to Sam scream, 'J-A-M-I-E! J-A-M-I-E! J-A-M-I-E! J-A-M-I-E!' until I could finally escape him.  

Well played, Daniel...well played...

This was Jake shaking up & getting ready to pound another one of those kool aid drinks thingies in a barrel shaped container.  I don't know how many he had, but from the blur of his quick movements, I'm thinking at least 42...

 Nora found the dessert table fairly quickly & was more than happy to smile for the camera.  Her & I sat at the table for a while looking at pics on my phone.  I would show her their dog & she would say, 'Dat Weese!'  Then I'd show her a pic of me & her mom & she would say, "Dat mommy.  Dat youuuuu!'

 My brother in law, Brian, got the honor of playing Santa this year.  I wanted to be sure to get a blackmail pic of that.

 This is when it got even louder.  My mil took over explaining how things were going to work to the kids.  I have no idea exactly what she told them...I got this pic off of Facebook.  I stay as far away from this room as humanly possible when all the kids are corralled here.

She announced each childs name as Santa pulled a gift out of the bag.

 And since the big McAfee family is practically being over run by the tiny humans...this took awhile. 

On Sunday, we celebrated w/ B-rad's immediate family.   I will say having the little girls around to be so excited for Christmas does make it a bit more fun.  They really are very sweet & that daddy of theirs makes them walk a line.  I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all.  They're well-behaved, (of course they have their moments) they are polite & very helpful.  Madelyn had the tables all set when we got there & they both helped us clean up the dishes.  (That was a hilarious nightmare in which I almost had a control freak induced stroke... )

Even though there were only 9 of us that morning, the noise in the house was deafening.  More so than normal I felt.  My in laws were in full force telling us over & over again how they were up until 3am wrapping presents.  (Not my fault they waited until the 2 days before to shop...) And my fil went on & on about how he wrapped each gift impeccably...
At one point ya'll it was SO loud I said to Eric, "Brad & I are NOT used to this much noise.  OH MY GAWD."
 When we get gifts from the in-laws it's a big production.  They announce whose turn it is to get a gift, then there's always an explanation surrounding it.  It's loud...& long.  For your viewing enjoyment I got my mil giving Erin & Eric their gift...the other loud voice you hear is my fil (talking about his pro wrapping job...)  (sorry I flipped my phone sideways soon after the video starts.  The real gem here is the audio...)
(Listen for the ceremonial countdown to open the gift at the beginning...)