Stratford Family Fun at Christmastime

It is usually just once a year when our entire family gets together - 

Thanksgiving one year and Christmas the next. 

This year there were 34 of us - Sadie and Jake are on missions and Sydney and Jake Walker live in Hong Kong.

Thank you Mindy and Jeff, for taking it on!

And thank you, each of our five kids's families, for making the grand effort to come!

There is nowhere Roger and I would rather be than with our family!

Stacy, Tom and family got to Mindy's the night before everyone else got there, 

so Stacy, Roger and I made cheesy veggie soup and taco soup and veggies and dip 

at Mindy and Jeff's before everyone arrived.

Everyone came hungry!

So fun to be together again.

The kids took turns hangin' out on the Lovesac.

Josh impressed all the little kids with his mastery of the Rubic's Cube. 

He still remembered how to line it all up fast, which he figured out long before his mission.

Claire loved making friends with Addie's cat, Adele.

So great to have all of our kids under one roof again!

The kids started catching up with each other and the stories began spinning!

Next day, the girls all met up at City Creek for some shopping

 before we headed over to the Grand America for a High Tea.

All of us girls (6 years old and over) looked forward to this and got dressed up for this special treat!

First we had a small whipped strawberry trifle, then they took our orders for herbal tea or hot chocolate. 

Next came the scones with clotted cream, homemade lemon curd and strawberry jam.

To die for!

And a variety of tea sandwiches - Yum!

The macarons absolutely melted in your mouth - best I've ever had!

This is the first time Anna ever tasted a macaron. 

She has Ciliac Disease and always before when she would inquire if the macarons were gluten free, 

they weren't. This time they were!

What a fun girlie experience with our daughters/granddaughters!

Now on to the next thing!

A little later the adult girls met up with the men for a tasty Mexican meal at Milagro's.

It was then off to the puzzle/escape room.

The group is given one half hour to escape out of the room 

by solving a large and complicated series of puzzles from clues. 

Many locks needed to be unlocked before the escape door could be unlocked.

Whoa, did our kids get down to it! 

Victory!

We just made it out with about 30 seconds to spare!

To be continued . . .