Extended Family Christmas Party 2019

I was just looking back over my posts and I realized that I have missed so many things. I don't know if it was the craziness of the season, our trip to Canada, the car accident, or all of the above, but I haven't been updating you as regularly as I should have been. So maybe before the New Year begins, I can quickly get you caught up.

On the Sunday before Christmas, my sweetie and Curly were again playing the "mini-me" card. They sure like dressing up the same way!

Later that evening, we had the big extended family party at our home. It has gotten to be more than 50 people and rather crowded, but we like Sundays and that means we can't schedule it at the church. This year we kept the menu and the activity super easy. I bought frozen lasagnas and my sister offered to make all of the rolls. Everyone else brought salads and we made our traditional eggnog shakes for dessert.

Rather than decorate gingerbread houses or sugar cookies, we decided on a snowflake making contest with prizes. Drama Queen was in charge of the contest and the awards, so it was super low stress for me.

Awaiting judgement...

Santa made his annual visit and left all of the kids under 18 with pretty nice gifts. The older kids got slinkys and the little ones got books and dolls. My sweetie does such a great job as Santa although he is always a little devastated when our own grandchildren are afraid of him. A few days before the party, he even put on his Santa suit for Twizlet to show her, but as soon as he slipped on the beard, she burst into tears and hid behind her mama.

But overall, the nieces and nephews think he is awesome and they are always excited when he comes through the door and are good sports about sitting on his lap. This year we implemented the bench for Santa rather than the chair and I think it was a good change we might have to make happen every year.

A visit with Santa.

Things were over and cleaned up by about 8:00 pm and we spent the rest of the evening wrapping gifts and watching sappy Christmas movies. I think I have watched a couple dozen movies this year and most of them I have never seen before. It is amazing how many different ways people can fall in love on Christmas.