Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & New Year's Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to my mom & dad's for their dinner and nativity. I decided to try my hair curly, but it was a pain and although I thought it was fun for a change at the time, I'm hating this picture!

 

Lots of delicious appetizers including bacon wrapped water chestnuts, crab rounds, spinach dip with bread, and cheese balls.

 

After a great dinner of ham & funeral potatoes, the kids got dressed up for the nativity.

 

None of the kids volunteered to be Joseph, so Jordan got assigned the role :)

 

After my mom & dad's we visited with Braeggers. When we got home, we let the kids open one present each. Buddy really didn't know what the gift would be. Surprise!! Pajamas!

 

Tony had some temporary insanity and changed the "mandatory sleep until time" to 5 am! Of course, the kids were in our room at exactly 5. They were excited to see that Santa brought them exactly what they asked for even though his note said that Christian only narrowly escaped from being on the naughty list: LEGOS.

 

Faith gave this great coupon (which I have since found must have some unwritten restrictions on it),

 

and Buddy gave me this. Whatever it is, it's awesome!

 

From us, the kids got the Airzooka guns, remote controlled helicopters, and these big beanbags.

 

Skittles got the monster-sized bully stick (which Buddy calls pee-pee sticks since they are made from smoked bull private parts).

 

After Tony & I had a nap, we went to my parents'.

 

We got to hang out with Eric while we were exchanging gifts :)

 

and Joy's family got there just before we left. (My mom likes to stagger the families so she can see all the kids and grandkids open their gifts.)

They gave us so many great things, but the best of all were Lagoon passes!

 

Next, we went to Tony's parents'. Lots more great gifts and fun hanging out with that side of the family. Faith and I got lots of gift certificates to the Shakespeare Festival!

 

We visited with my grandmas on Christmas Eve, and after Braegger's we stopped by to visit with Tony's Grandma Mitchell.

 

While we were there, Santa texted Tony to say that he had missed two gifts in his bag and had stopped by our house to deliver them. He even sent a picture of the presents under the tree on the text! We came home to see that they were Furbies. The kids were thrilled, but I say that Santa's in trouble--those things are SOOOOO annoying!

 

The kids had fun playing with all their gifts that next week home from school. We got all dressed up in our jammies, and Tony even wore some Santa boxers that he'd gotten for two bucks at the after Christmas sale as a joke.

'

We ate ribs, played games and rang in the new year!