Christmas Eve

We had our annual Christmas Eve family party at my mom & dad's. Almost everyone was there! Here's most of the grandkids! My kids love their cousins!!
My brother and all of his kids, minus Dylan who is on a mission in Mexico, were there. My sister, Steph, was there but I don't have any pics of her and her husband, Jim. Sorry Steph! We had a new member of the family with us this year, Kelly Ann, my nephew Mark's new wife. Last year on Christmas Eve we were so excited that Mark was about to pop the question and now we have a fun new niece and cousin! She even joined in on the cousin dog pile on top of Marky!! My aunts, Yvonne and Mary Jo, and my uncle, Allen, and his wife, Marcia, were there to celebrate with us. My grandma was definitely missed. Every Christmas Eve of my life has been spent with her and it was so strange to have her gone. We miss you sooooo much Grandma!!!
We had a little talent show. Skylar played Do You Hear What I Hear? from her piano recital and did an excellent job!Nick played Away in a Manger beautifully.
Kade decided that his talent was reading us the Star Wars Alphabet. He has this thing memorized! It is quite a talent!!
Alexis performed both of her dances from her recital with a little help from Skylar leading. She did so good!!
Everyone loved Alexis's dances so much that they wanted to do it with her. So while Nick played Up on the Housetop on the piano, Skylar led all of the girls in Alexis's dance. How cute are they?!?
Then we dressed up for our nativity program. Skylar was the angel, Nick was Joseph, and Kade and Alexis were both shepherds this year.
I love seeing the kids act out the nativity. It's a tradition we've done all of my life.
Then it was time to open presents from the grandparents and cousins!!
I hope my parents liked the family tree I made for them...I know my brother, Al, loved the Kindle us siblings got for him! My brother reads more than anyone I know, even Skylar! Finally at the end of the night the kids put on their new Christmas pjs and we headed home.
The stockings were hung by the computer with care....We checked Santa's progress on the Santa Tracker and knew he was getting close!

So after some tooth pulling (next post!), the cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer came out and we headed off to bed where we read the Night Before Christmas before settling our heads.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!