Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a day of preparation and celebration for us! In anticipation of the 16+ people that we were expecting for a brunch and then Christmas dinner, I spent the morning in the kitchen cooking up a feast! Thanks to my mom, who came over for a couple hours to entertain the kids, I had very little left to do on Thursday other than throw stuff in the oven. For our brunch with my parents and brothers we had french toast casserole, cranberry-orange loaf, scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and tangerines. It was fabulous! My grandparents and uncle, aunt and cousins came over in the afternoon and we enjoyed a yummy Italian meal of lasagna and meatballs/sausage, salad, homemade rolls, whipped fruit salad, a fruit tart, and tons and tons of Christmas cookies.

That evening the kids opened their stockings and each got a DVD (Madagascar and Tinker Bell) and new jammies (the first matching ones they've had - too adorable).

Riley got a head lamp (so now he won't be using Brad's nice camping one all the time!) and Naomi got a little princess phone. Brad got a coffee mug (he always loses them and then takes my girly ones everywhere...hopefully this one will last awhile). And I got a lovely pair of super soft jammies!We headed over to church for the Christmas Eve service which was excellent and then over to my uncle's house where we met my grandparents, parents, and brothers for a party. The kids were so well behaved and polite, despite Riley having a little cold and not feeling great (you can see how flushed he is the all pics poor guy), and we all had a really enjoyable evening with our awesome family!Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!