Christmas Eve

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house again this year. It gets crazier every year to get this group together! The girls love playing with their cousins. Avery and Morgan call the Wilken kids "the noise". It started one time that we had everyone over and after the Wilkens' left, Avery said "the noise has left!" Now, we just say "the noise is coming over" or "the noise is leaving"... and we all know what that means! :)

We had a special visitor on Christmas Eve at our house... Santa (aka my uncle Scott)! This year, there was no crying and most of the kids were not too scared of Santa. Avery still refuses to sit on his lap, but at least will talk to him and get a little closer. Morgan is SO into Santa, it's hilarious. She wanted to talk to him from the second he walked in the door. She asked him if he had brought Rudolph with him... and why he wasn't wearing his gloves (he had actually forgotten them)... and how he had cut his hand (he had a small scratch on his hand - ha!) The kids kept pulling his beard down by accident and I thought for sure she was going to ask about that, but she didn't. Santa gave each of the kids a small gift and then had to head on his way. He had a busy night ahead of him, of course! ;) When he left, Morgan said "I heard the reindeer on the roof, Mama!" to my mom. So adorable!

I love this picture! This just shows a little glimpse into the craziness that was Santa's visit! I'm thinking Santa was exhausted after all of it!

I'm not sure how this "game" got started, but it was a cousin favorite. They all got to take turns being "first". All the adults were laughing, because we really couldn't figure out why you would want to be "first". Unfortunately, we had to put an end to this game because of a few injuries.

Avery and Morgan (aka Matt) bought this beautiful flower/candle arrangement for our island. It was so Christmas-y and I loved it!

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to deep fry a turkey and a chicken. It always turns out amazing!

Frying the turkey!

When you run out of room in the cooler...

So much delicious food!

The kid table - I can't believe they are all sitting at the same time!
I'm sure it lasted about 30 seconds!

Our neighborhood organized a luminary display and put thousands of luminaries on our block. It was a major effort and looked amazing!

And off to bed the kiddos went... we left cookies for Santa and reindeer food for the all Santa's reindeer!

Hard to see, but Santa stopped here!