Christmas Eve

we continued last year's Christmas eve day tradition, so the girls and i headed to lodi early in the day to get the party started!

we spent quality time with the great grandparents and did lots of Christmas-y things.

such as wearing uncle brett's old bunny costume?

she is a silly billy.

hello! now that is a prime rib. no vegetarians here!

teamwork!

the girls also came over for gingerbread house extravaganza!

tasha and jasmine had never made them out of graham crackers, only from kits. what? i have only made them from graham crackers! it's the best, messiest, most fun way.

sophie is the cutest girl in glasses. 

shelby was in HEAVEN. cousins, frosting, projects, candy, Christmas!

here's the one shelby and i worked on together.

so proud. 

so cute.

the girls were super impressed by my wreath. 

to be honest, i was pretty excited about it too!

tasha's creation collapsed under a heavy frosting weight.

jasmine was smart and didn't bother with a roof!

the gummy bears are watching tv.

matching Christmas outfits! merry Christmas to me! 

love their shoes especially.

ready to party! grandpa curtis and grandma kathi came up from fresno for the festivities too.

orangey is always excited for a party and extra hands to pet him 

and extra black shirts to get his hair all over.

our cute family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011!

Cora's first Christmas Eve was off to an awesome start.

yay!

love this face

what was that? are my cousins back?

sophie and tasha independently dressed just like each other. 

there must be a big lodi middle school trend going on! 

jasmine was a great helper with shelby all night. 

she made sure her shoes stayed on because those tights were oh so slippery!

family! aunt bev, cousin corrinne, momma and cora

cuties! love the festive tie dad! 

uncle richard i am gonna...

get you!

how i wish sophie lived closer! she would probably pay us to let her babysit.

cousins!

oh hello tasha!

my big girl was so happy to have such a captive audience.

facebook break.

hugs!

reid got an iphone for Christmas and brett made sure he knew about the best apps. 

i remember holding ethan as a baby! how is he that big now? 

great aunt bev was so impressed with the little apple gadgets. 

dinner time!

there's dad in his traditional spot, carving the prime rib for everyone.

i love my mom so much!

she is so gorgeous. 

i can't believe some of them of are in high school.

this was shelby's first time at the big kid table! she did great. 

the dessert table was particularly big this year.

in the boxes were three kinds of pie, apple, peach berry, and pumpkin walnut (YUM), later we added a cheesecake, german chocolate cake, and a bunch of ice cream flavors. baskin robbins peppermint was my favorite.

bread, jello, veggies with ranch. good enough for me!

brett will be on his mission during his next two Christmases! so i made sure to get a picture of this year, but i tried not to make too big a deal and make mom cry or something. 

it was a fun first Christmas eve for this little girl. 

cora was my little barnacle, attached at almost all times. 

it was a lot of new faces all at once.

that's a lot of stockings! do i get a prize for adding 3 stockings to the mantle? one by marriage and two by c-section. i guess my prize is having such a happy family. awwwww. 

richard. look at you. doing the dishes! such an eligible bachelor. 

presents!!!!

but first, the kids went out to the gym to run around in the freezing cold. check out those cheeks.

as always, great grandpa loved his calendar and everyone had fun looking at it. 

we love great grandpa so much! 

and our boy cousins too.

i sure love this tradition.

we all look forward to Christmas eve all year long!

i was just happy the girls stayed seated.

after photos, my mom handed out bells, and the kids led us in a few Christmas carols. 

then it was finally time.

wait for it...

wait.....

GO!

Merry Christmas everyone! the boy cousins all wanted sweatshirts, so my mom got each of them one from their favorite sports team. the girls got cool bags filled with accessories. shelby and cora got dolls, books, games, and clothes. my mom gave out cute signs that had each family's last name on them and also, per tradition, framed photos of our common ancestors. 

i am so grateful that the celebration of our Savior's birth is a time for family. 

we feel so lucky to have each other and to all live so close.

santa made his first big appearance at our house and was just fine with oreos instead of homemade treats. he's not picky. he even left a fun note!

santa also left the shark balloon that shelby had asked for, and daddy had to check it to make sure it worked. he stayed up very late getting it just right.

scary. 

merry Christmas to all and to all a good nightmare about sharks! ahhhhhhhh!