Christmas Eve

This year we had Christmas Eve dinner at our house for Michael's side of the family. This was the first time in two years that all the brothers would be together under one roof. This was also the first time we got to meet our newest nephew James.

Here's Aunt Shana and James! He's such a cute!

A week before Christmas Michael had a poker party at the house with 18 men in our dining room. If you've been in my dining room this would impress you...a lot! So we decided to set it up the same way for Christmas Eve dinner. We brought in the patio table and turned both the dining room table and the patio table sideways so they would both fit. It worked out pretty good!

Jack enjoyed slurping up those spaghetti noodles!



After dinner the kids had so much fun rough housing around in the living room. It was so great! I love hearing the giggles and laughs. They weren't even in a hurry to open up their presents they were just enjoying playing so much!

I love this picture of Paige and her Daddy (Michael's oldest brother Rick).

Since 3 out of 4 of the brothers were laid off at one point during the year we decided to just give the kids presents and not the adults. We also had the kids draw names so we only had to buy for 2 kids since we have 2 kids. It was nice and easy on the wallet that's for sure! Owen got some more Cars to go inside his Cars carrying case. They are the mini Cars. He is so in love!!! Red and Tow Mater are his favorites right now. He also got a cute pair of pajamas with bears on them. The grandparents and great-grandparents also got all the kids present too.

Camryn and Paige snuggling in their new pajamas!

Jack wasn't sure about the whole opening presents thing he actually drove around on his present with his Cars for a long time before I got him to open it. He got a cute little Elmo, green ball and a dump truck that had mega blocks in it.

James is so close to walking around...he was having so much fun pushing Jack's shopping cart back and forth. He's a very content little guy!

Like I said this is the first time since Christmas 2007 all the brothers were together. I'm so glad I got them all to stand together and take a picture. Of course standing in birth order was out of the question. They are pretty close though...Michael is the only one that's out of place. He should be all the way on the right since he's the baby of the family. L to R - Michael, Rick, Steve and Jon. I must say the fact that Jon is smiling and showing teeth is a Christmas miracle in and of itself! :)

Now for the annual Christmas tree pictures...I know it's a little corny, but I like to scrapbook them each year to see how much we've all change.

Mom & Dad

Rick, Michelle, Avery, Cooper & Paige

Steve, Shana, Stevie & James - Stevie is almost 13 years old and when he walked in the house I about fell over. The kid is getting so tall and to top it off his voice is changing. It totally makes me feel old. I remember holding him when he was 4 months old...I didn't even know he would become my nephew at the time because Michael and I weren't even dating at the time. Crazy!!!

Jon, Becky, Camryn & Samantha

Michael, Lyndsay, Owen, Jack & Ella in the tummy!

It was really nice to have everyone over to our house and it wasn't that stressful since everyone brought something for dinner. We also used...gasp...paper plates, but it was so nice to have very few dishes to wash. I still didn't get around to cleaning up the kitchen until this morning though!