Family Christmas Parties

I think we see my family more around Christmas for all of our many parties than we do the rest of the year combined!!  We have a lot of things we like to do and we schedule our 3 parties before Thanksgiving to be sure that everyone can make it.  The first party we had was our 'progressive dinner.'  This is where we start at one family's house and we eat there and make our way through every one's homes eating and enjoying their Christmas decorations.  It's a great way to eat a lot over 3-4 hours and see every one's homes!

 This is one of my favorite nights.  I love our parties with my family.  It just makes me sad that we let the rest of the year go without really getting together so much.

 Ethan and his best pal, his 'Grampy.' 

 We get together another night to exchange gifts and ornaments.  Santa usually makes an appearance that night (more on that later.)  The kids all draw names to exchange an ornament and a small gift.  They had a great time opening the gifts with each other.  My Grandma Pete was able to come to most of our parities this year.  She is a great sport.  She sat and chatted with Mason for quite a while.  It really was very sweet to watch.  He talked back and she was so tickled that he would speak to her!

 Mason's happy place is sitting on my mom's lap.  They kiss and make-out quite a bit.  I only say that because Mason has some pretty sloppy kisses.  He likes to lick my mom's chin.  It's so darling how he hears her voice and moves as fast as his little broken body can carry him to get to her.  He gets so excited and giggles and kicks around until she picks him up and plays with him.

 I think the most anticipated event we had this year was the adult ornament exchange.  This was taken to a whole new level last year when Spencer pulled out all the stops.  We draw names and the only rule is that you have to make the ornament for the person you draw.  Last year Spencer wired lights into a felt Christmas tree he sewed.  This year when my mom drew his name she had so much anxiety over getting it just right!  She made him this lego mobile that really doesn't even fit on our tree it's so big!  We wired it to our light over our table! 

 Spencer shopped for parts and ideas for months and finally came up with this little star.  It looks so unassuming, but each of the little points, when pressed, plays a Christmas song that he himself recorded.  It is the funniest thing I have ever seen.  He had to build a speaker box to mount inside so that the sound quality was up to par. 

 I made my dad a picture framed photo of him with James Taylor.  I put lights around the picture and once I did that the picture was too dark so I added the book light to spotlight the picture!  It was heavier than I had hoped, but it was pretty good!

 Mikey had my name and went for quantity.  He put eyelet screws on the entire cast of Nightmare Before Christmas.  They just kept coming out of the bag!  It was pretty funny.

 This was the display of all of the ornaments made.  Heidi made Alain an dream home out of Popsicle sticks, Michelle made Heidi a lego replica of her boat, Alain made mom a copper reindeer, Dad made Karie a sea shell ornament (not pictured) and Karie made Rusty something and Rusty made Mikey something.  We never got to see those because Rusty couldn't make it this year.

 Another tradition that we manage to do every year is we dress up and read the nativity.  This year it was more summarizing and walking in to the spot for the picture, but we got the idea.  We had such a great time.  I wish I had taken pictures of the white elephant exchange.  I love the Christmas season having the excuse to make time to get together.  Those are my favorite memories.