Christmas Eve

Sophia showing off her new monkey from Aunt Bess 

Leo telling Aunt Bess all about his monkey friend. 

opening some Christmas Eve goodies from Aunt Anne

My delicious buffet!

I made a tribute to Shelby with a a collage of fun Christmas pictures.  I encouraged people to write down a favorite memory of her and put it in the snowman box.  I, of course, made sure to put her near the desserts.

Lara, Mom and Anne

Dean and Nikayla

Cathy and Gene

Big Cousin John
this was the only picture I could manage to snap so he'll have to suffer with it being on the internet! ;)

The dudes in the kitchen
Stacy, Dean, Nick and Tom

Oh yeah, I did it.

The kids got an email from Santa...so exciting!

Leo helping Cooper open his present

Sophia got to open a present early too

Leo checking out his coloring book

Cooper fascinated with sorting candy

Charlie, Jacob, and Sarah snuggle on the couch

Time to open jammies and slippers!

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Leo modeling his slippers for everyone :)

New Jammies for Christmas Eve!!!

Sophia gets one last snuggle with Andrew before bed

Sarah doing some elf singing

the kids write their note to Santa

We hosted our usual chili feast for Christmas Eve.  It's nice to have both sets of family over but the hard part is that when it's on a weekday some people have to work and it can make for a late night to bed!  But it was really okay, it was much more important to see our family and the kids fell fast asleep, looking adorable in their new jams.  Sophia was concerned that Santa wouldn't see the cookies on top of the mantle (so Walter couldn't eat them) so she wanted to write him a note.  Leo helped.  It was a difficult Christmas without Shelby but we did the best we could.