Christmas

We were at home again this year. We had all but 3 of the family here, Riley, Dad and Maikwe weren't able to make it, but that still left us with 15 people in our house for Christmas. We almost didn't get Justin or Alissa (Justin's girl). Seattle had been snowed in for days and Alissa was stuck in San Francisco. She ended up flying to Vegas and drove down with Shea and luckily Justin's flight was only an hour late. We had wonderful food on Christmas Eve. Corned beef, ham, stuffed chicken breasts, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, jello with whipped cream, homemade rolls, carrots layonnaise. And lots of pies. We all filled ourselves to over indulgence. After which we had a wonderful Christmas program. My mother wanted each family to do a little "skit" of some sort. I think she was hoping for a mild-mannered evening full of nice talents. Unfortunately, I'm don't think she remembered who she was asking to do such things. We had some nice moments. Jess, and Nate sang some beautiful songs, Cole played a solo on the piano that was nice, Paul did a wonderful lesson about Christ with paper tearing, but that is where is ended. Shea and Berns changed the words to "Proud Mary" to fit the story of Christ's birth. Damon played the clarinet and tapped dance, at the same time. The Hagemeisters did reindeer jokes with puppets. Justin did an interpretive lyrical dance to Alissa singing Jingle Bell Rock. And Paul was the patridge in the pear tree in our family version of 12 days of Christmas. After the Holiday show-down, we did our Secret Santa's and opened our Christmas P.J's. Our whole family got matching scrubs. Unfortunately we didn't get our pictures taken because Jack and Izzy couldn't wait the night out anymore. After that we settled down the "The Littlest Angel" read by my mom. This is a story that my Grandpa read to my Mom and then to us and now we read it every year to our kids. I cried like usual, it was a great story. The kids then went to bed and we cleaned up so that Santa could come. And boy did he come. What a great haul this year. Nate recieved a new video camera (with video to follow). I received a new lens for my camera. Cole got a huge Indiana Jones Lego set. Riian, night vision goggles. Jack a Tag reading system, he uses a pen and goes over the words and the pen reads them for him. And Izzy got a ride-on horse. There was a grand mess at the end, which is usual. After the presents were opened and much candy eaten, we took naps. Nate took the kids sledding and the big kids went to see a movie. That night we went to my cousins house to meet with more family. I think there was a total of 40 people there eating and playing and singing and some dancing. It was a great Christmas as usual. Can't wait for next year. It wouldn't stop snowing, so the front entrance was full of snow stuff all week This is just some of the holiday mess. After we cleaned up a bit Santa never spells names right Santa always leaves wonderful treats Enough said The start of the Holiday extravaganza I think Alissa thinks we're crazy. She would be correct Yes those are feety pajamas on Berns. I don't know why. I don't remember inviting him