Tis the Season!

I absolutely love the Christmas season! One of my favorite things about this time of year is all the extra time we get to spend with family! We kicked off the holiday season on Saturday with a family party. Most of my family will not be in town this year for Christmas so we decided to celebrate a little early. We have actually had this family party for a couple years now. It is always fun to be with everyone and this year was no exception! A big thank you to my brother Chris and his wife Julie for hosting, they always do a great job. We had a great dinner, a fun talent show, and even more fun doing a white elephant gift exchange. Laura started the talent show idea a couple years ago and it is such a success! I always pawn the talent portion off onto my kids. This year Cassidy played the piano. She always does a great job and amazes everyone at how well she can play! Kaden decided to read a Christmas story to everyone and did a wonderful job. His nerves got to him right before it was his turn so I promised to sit with him and luckily that helped. Since Spencer is our resident comedian we though it would be appropriate for him to tell Christmas jokes. He did a great job up there, no nerves at all, and even stumped us on most of the answers! It is such a fun tradition that we have started. Here are some pics from our fun-filled night:
Sorry to those of you(Dad, Laura & Jon, Kevin's fam) whose pictures aren't shown. My camera was being weird and some of them came out so dark you couldn't see anything.

Our wonderful holiday meal!

All the kids were putting this tinsel on their heads, so of course Ethan had to be in on the action too!

Cassidy playing fabulously!

My niece Elly narrating the hilarious skit that my brother wrote!

Julie playing, she did an outstanding job!

My cute little nieces, Sophie and Liza, singing Away in a Manger!

My little comedian, he will do anything for a laugh!

The white elephant gift exchange, my favorite!

My brother Chris modeling the awesome 1970's sweater he got!!


We did miss Katie's family and David's family(who live out of state), and of course we missed Mom! It was weird not to have her there but we were definitely thinking of her!