Christmas Eve

Our family doesn't have tons of traditions, but one that we do have is our Christmas Eve party. For my whole life, every year on Christmas Eve, my mom's side of the family gathers together for a big party. When I was a child we gathered at my Memere and Pepere's house. In later years, the tradition moved to my Aunt Joanne's house while my grandparents flew south for the winter months. And the past couple years my Aunt Janice and Uncle Rob have taken on the duty of hosting this party. It has always been a big event but has grown tremendously in the past couple of years. My Memere and Pepere have 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren!!!! Usually most everyone makes it, but there are always a few missing. But you can imagine this is one exciting party with plenty of food, gifts, energetic children, and lots of love. I was so happy we were able to make it this year.

Before anyone eats a thing or a present is opened, we always have family photo shoots orchestrated by Auntie Nancy. This is always an interesting attempt to get each family photographed. Some years go better than others and this year went pretty well. Here we are, the Delaney/Tribou/Marshall family...minus one. My little sister wasn't here because she is in England spending the holiday with her boyfriend. We missed you, Dee!

An attempt to get all the little ones. You probably can guess we are missing a few, but the ones who are here did pretty well!

Present time!

Santa dropped a sack of gifts on the front porch filled with gifts for each of the kids. What a surprise!

The kids each got a gift from Santa, pajamas from my mom, slippers and the Polar Express from my sister and a bag of goodies from Memere and Pepere. They had so much fun opening all of their surprises. Emma and Abby were also great helpers handing out all of the gifts to everyone.

Abby and Eric checking out a new toy.

Having fun making ornaments.

It was so good to see this smiling face again!

Abby had fun playing with Taylor.

It's hard to tell what is going on in this picture, but if only you could have been there! Someone got a Santa toy that sings and dances. Well, all the little ones were having a blast dancing like Santa. You should have seen some of their moves!

And that's the end of it! Then we went "home" (Nana's house) to leave some reindeer food outside and some cookies inside by the fire for Santa. It was such a great night with family and I'm so glad we didn't miss it!