Twas the Night Before Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my parent's house.

Some highlights of the evening:

The kids acting out the nativity-

Spencer was baby Jesus, sporting jeans and a bulldog t-shirt. So much for swaddling clothes... Taylor was a wiseman, with a big fat jewel plunked dead center on his forehead to make him seem more Wisemanish. Ethan was Joseph. Sara was Mary (obsessed with being Mary). Emma was the angel. Livvy was a Ute fan disguised as a shepherd. And finally, we threw Eliza in as all the misc barnyard animals. She did a fabulous job wandering about.

Santa Clause wasn't able to come to the party this year. Fortunately for us, Alan stepped in as a good jolly old elf and was handing out gifts like a mad man- the crowd favorite being the green sweaters. Alan has connections (hi Sam!) at J Crew and came across this great deal- the catch- only the green sweaters were on sale. And so, every guy in the fam got a green sweater. And that was only the beginning of the stuff he was handing out. Fun times.

Mark and Annie brought along their dog Charlie. Livvy loves this poor little dog. In this picture I would say it is possible that Charlie is having a good time.

In this picture I would have to assume the dog is fearing for her life.

Spencer having a little snack.

The kids opened their Christmas jammies at my parent's house. I have them do this in case one of them falls asleep in the car. We got the girl's night gowns at Disneyland. They were very surprised and excited to see them.

For some reason Spencer opened his jammies later and got a picture all by himself. Look at his little hands posing for the camera. He is a natural...