Blogging photo dump style - December 2013, Christmastime!

The last few years (since everyone moved away!!) we've hosted Christmas Eve at our house. The group isn't huge, so we all fit nicely. Our group 5 years ago would have been a different story. Standing room only wouldn't be an exaggeration! I think this year we "only" had 21 people. Which is tiny for my family! It was nice though, we ate (too much!), played games, visited, ate more, then we sang songs and opened a few gifts. We haven't quite figured out how to prepare enough food for a small group though. We easily had enough to feel all 60 of my parents kids and grand kids. Someday we'll figure it out??

 This is just the dessert area :) We had so.much.food.

After everyone left on Christmas Eve Andy and I got all the kids gifts out to put around the tree, we filled stockings and had some help from Christmas elves (aka Uncle Keenan and Aunt Suzanne) building some lego creations on the new lego table I made for the kids. Then we tried to sleep. :)

The boys woke up around 6:30 probably and we told them they could open their stockings, it wasn't long before the rest of us were up and ready to dig in to the pile of presents. We were all spoiled and the living room was trashed in a matter of minutes! The kids were happy with their gifts, and that makes me happy.

 We were pretty excited for Nora to see her gift this year. We had been collecting pieces for her doll house set throughout the summer at yard sales and thrift stores (yes, we're "those" parents. The kids don't care though, and we are able to get some good deals!). She did not disappoint. She was so excited and has pretty much spent a good chunk of every day since Christmas playing with her doll house. Girl toys finally, yay! :)

 My big Christmas gift project this year were quilts for the boys. They are super hero quilts, made with strips of varying widths of coordinating super hero fabric. They love them, and it's a good thing. It took much longer for me to make them than I thought, my poor sewing machine kicked the bucket right in the middle of the project. Luckily my mother in law had a machine I could borrow to finish up!