Literally.
Sleeping and reading. But that is what Christmas break is supposed to be all about, right?? That and Christmas!
We started off Christmas Eve with heading to Mass at our church. My second grade Religious Ed kids acted out the nativity during the Gospel reading and it was super awesome.
Before leaving for church
Zowie, Adam's niece, came over to help set the table. She's so good at folding napkins!
Each setting at the table. I love it looking like this!After Mass, we hurried home to finish getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner for my family. My awesome sister spent the day before at our house helping to clean, prepare, bake and cook. She came with us right after Mass to do the same. It NEVER would have gotten all done as nice as it did with out her.
We had 16 people around our dining room table! I love it!
We had 16 people around our dining room table! I love it!
The view from my end of the table.
The view from Adam's end of the table.
The Christmas Tree!After dinner, Adam's nephew stopped by so we could give him his Christmas presents. He wasn't going to be there Christmas morning and I wanted to be able to give him his gifts. He was SO super excited about his Star Wars Legos Visual Dictionary. It was a hit!
After that, the girls headed to the kitchen to do lots of cleaning. We have used our China 3 times now since we've been married so I am excited about it. The downside? Handwashing it all! Luckily my super awesome sister stepped in again and our cousins were lifesavers as well.
After all the cleaning was done, we headed in to relax and have the kids open presents. We don't do presents for anyone but the kids (and Grandpa) with my family, so it was very low key.
The only real "kid" opening giftsAfter presents we had yummy dessert! Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake (I used her Strawberry Recipe and made it Raspberry...A-MAZ-ING!) and French Silk Pie.
After all the food was digested, we decided to do some photoshoots!
My and my honey on our first Christmas married.
He was such a good sport!
The girl cousins on my dad's side. We were so mad that we forgot to get a picture while our cousin (the girls' bro) was still there. He is a Marine and is home for the holidays.
Our cousin on mom's side. Her little boy is the one who was opening gifts earlier.After the photoshoot was done we got serious about some Just Dance, the first one. At that point I didn't know what was waiting for me under the tree....Just Dance 2!
As you can see, I had to change into my dancing clothes!After Just Dancing for quite some time, we busted out the Sports Resort Sword Fighting. I will spare you millions of picture of that and leave you with this one of my cousins. Everyone was getting really into it and though the closer to the TV they were, the better they would do. I was seriously afraid a Wiimote was going through my TV screen! But it didn't.
We woke up a little sore on Christmas morning from all the dancing and sword fighting but the night was still a blast. I love having people over and it was great to have my family spend Christmas Eve at our house. It always makes me realize how important family is and how we are creating these memories that we will treasure forever!
