We did,in fact, have Christmas this year...

...and here are a plethora of pictures to prove it.


On Christmas Eve day we always go to Grandma's and make the mini meatballs for the chicken soup and roll the meat for the antipasto. Between the 5 of us, we made 137 meatballs.

Here's the boys team-

 And the girls team {minus yours truly}-

Each family has a decoration on Grandma's tree. Our family is too big to put everyones names, so it just has the kids.  

Brian was SO EXCITED about Mom's chocolate chip cookies and couldn't understand why he had to share them with the rest of the family.

Wesley came with Daniel and Erika and once again played the piano fantabulously while we sang.

The next hour was spent in opening loads of presents and throwing wrapping paper balls and bows. 

Zachary and Molly both wrote me books as gifts. Molly's was called "the flaur" and Zachary's "The disaperang mitin". I couldn't tell at first what his was called and thought it said "the disciplinarian". I immediately began to rethink my babysitting habits.  

 The Yankee Swap was pretty intense but Alyssa and I joined together and managed to keep our heads above the nonsense. As is their custom, Daniel and Erika choose what they brought without even looking at any of the other gifts which is borderline cheating. Alyssa and I considered calling them out on it, but we were too busy planning our strategy.

Before Daniel and Erika left, we went back home and did our presents with them. 

To be continued...