62. December 26th, 2010 Picture.

The day after Christmas, my family hosted the annual Downey Family Christmas Party, a yearly tradition, obviously.  There are so many of us that we now rent out a hall, hire a DJ and have our party catered, oh and a bar, and usually TV so we can watch the Patriots game.  It started when I was 10 and has continued for the past 17 years, at various locations.  It's completely impossible for one person to host us all, at their house, when it's the middle of winter and the kids can't be running their energy off outside while the adults sip beers in lawn chairs.  I told you - there are A LOT of us!

It was a great venue, our first time testing it out, mainly because there was a separate room for the music, i.e. kids dancing, running and yelling.  There are so many young kids now, that when we're all thrown together in one room it's utter CHAOS.  Like, I want to pull my hair out and throw myself off the roof chaos.  I love children, especially those I'm related to, but I have always said I cannot handle them in mass, it's one of the reasons I didn't become a teacher.  That and because I'd have no patience and would most definitely hate teaching, but I would really love to only work 9 months a year.  Anyway!  I loved that the adults could be in one room, talking like, you know, adults while the kids caused absolute mayhem next door.  The DJ was great and played all the songs the kids loved, including the Hokey Pokey, and the Chicken Dance (which he played twice).  What?  It's the quintessential family party playlist.  I'm pretty sure we threw in a little Sister Sledge too.

{A handful of kids doing the Chicken Dance.  I use the term 'handful' loosely.  Trust me.}

The day after Christmas we were actually hit with the most ridiculous snowstorm.  The news was saying that we could get 2 feet overnight, which caused a lot of family members to stay home, including my brother Eddie.  Here's a shot of my Uncle Bill calling Eddie to give him a piece of his mind.  I'm pretty sure he called him the biggest wimp ever.  God, I love Uncle Bill!

{My Uncle Paul getting in on the Chicken Dance action.  This was the second time the DJ played it, we're total dorks.}

{We even did crab races.  The kids were hilarious at this, but the best part was when the adults tried it out.  Fortunately for us, those photos don't exist!  What a shame.}

Ratty had spent Christmas night at his parents house, so his mother drove him down to Melrose for our party.  She came in for a few minutes, and got the opportunity to meet my mother and most of my extended relatives.  She could not get over the size of our family and when I told her that there was probably only about 35% in attendance, her head almost exploded.  That's the typical reaction we get from people.  To us it's completely normally, to me it seems strange to come from a small family, like, what do you mean you're an only child and you have NO cousins?  I have 50 and I love them all!

We stayed at the party until the last possible second, and then decided to go to my Uncle Paul's house for an after party.  This was the plan all along, though almost everyone backed out due to the weather.  Most sane people would have just headed home to wait out the storm, but being the adventurous couple that we are, Ratty and I braved the weather to spend more time with my family.  In all it was me, Ratty, Uncle Paul, Susan, my cousins Annmarie and Richard.  We spent all night cozied up in the living room, drinking beers and just hanging out.  I love spending time with my family, a theme that is well documented on this blog, so I didn't want to pull myself away.  Eventually my mom called, repeatedly, and said that we had to leave, the roads were closing due to the storm and unless I was willing to sleep in a twin bed next to my cousin, it was time to go.  We all said goodbye and headed home.  Poor Annmarie's car got towed, and her, Richard and Sue spent a good portion of the night trying to get it out of the impound lot.  We left a few minutes before her, so it wasn't until we got home that we heard the news.  I was totally upset for her, what a horrible ending to an awesome day. 

Uncle Paul lives probably 20 minutes away from my apartment, but the highways hadn't been plowed, AT ALL, so we had to crawl through the back roads.  It took us over an hour and a half to make it the few miles back to Southie, even the side streets weren't plowed!  I don't know what the cities were doing but all the roads were totally unsafe.  I was so tense going up small inclines, knowing that if I stopped for a second, my little standard wouldn't make it.  BUT we made it home and lived to tell the tale!  Regardless of the commute home, and the car towing of course, and you know, all the snow, it was a great day!

{So much snow.  We had no idea that this was JUST the beginning!}