It was a week before Christmas, 2007. All of the presents had arrived. The Christmas Tree was set up, and we had our turkey. All was in readiness for Christmas morning.

Then Mom and Dad announced that we would be leaving, driving up to NH, (where Grammy and Gumpy live) and having Christmas with them.

Oh, and…

…they had no idea that we were coming!

We loaded up the car with all of our snow gear, all of our food, all of our personal stuff, and all of the presents (yes, even the ones Grammy had shipped to us from NH). We left our house on the evening of the 23rd, drove through the night, and got to Sunapee early Christmas Eve morning. We parked at the bottom of the driveway so they couldn’t see our car from the house. We all started climbing up the icy, slippery driveway – except for the boys.  They decided to climb up the hill that was covered in snow.

Dad called Grammy and asked her if there were any wild turkeys in her yard (not an unusual question as we ask her that all the time). When she looked out the window, my brothers were almost to her porch. She grabbed her coat and ran out to meet us.

Oh, I almost forgot. While Mom, Dad, the girls and I were walking up the driveway, we met Gumpy. He was salting the driveway. When he saw us, there was no surprise. He just said “Hi” like we lived down the street. (But that is the way my Gumpy is! He is steady, reliable, and the nicest Gumpy I could ever have. I love you, Gumpy!)

We had all day Christmas Eve, and Christmas morning before we had to head home. Before we left home Mom had cooked and cut up our turkey, and we brought it. (So Grammy would not have to feed my 5 ravenous brothers on what she had there. ) We also brought cranberry jelly, crescent rolls, and a bunch of other things.

We put all of the presents under the tree, and hung up all of the stockings – twelve stockings are alot, you know!

We decided to open all of our presents on Christmas Eve, so that we could max out the daylight hours for sledding, making snowmen, and any other outside things that we wanted to do. So we opened our presents and played with them while Gumpy read “Bear Noel” (one of our presents) out loud to us. “Bear Noel” is one of my favorite books to read at Christmastime now! 😀

When it was time to go to bed, Mom and Dad got the pull-out couch, and we kids got the floor. We woke up early Christmas morning and ate breakfast (cereal with blueberries from their bushes! Yum!!) After that we got all of our snowclothes on, and headed outside. I pulled Indigo (she was 1) in the little sleigh:

 

Then Grammy took a turn:

Dad and the boys started sledding:

And Hewitt and Dad wiped out almost immediately!!

After that, some of the boys wanted to make a snowman since Grammy had this very cool snowman kit. The boys LOVED making it!

 

When it was almost time to leave, we took a picture with all of the stockings:

Mom was taking the picture, and I’m not sure where Dad was… maybe he was loading the car.  Don’t we all look so young?

We had a wonderful Christmas. We still talk about it! Even though it was 4 years ago.  Mom says not to expect to ever surprise anyone for Christmas ever again, but we keep hoping!

PJ adds: It really was a wild and crazy thing to do. I love doing totally unexpected things.  With eight children, dairy goats, and a full time business, I don’t get to do it often, but I sure have fun with it when I do!