Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we headed over to my mom's house. The past few years we have tried to do "Christmas Around the World" so that we don't have the same meal we had for Thanksgiving. We've explored Mexico, Italy, China. This year we had a luau. I know Hawaii isn't a country, but it was still fun. Our dinner included homemade mango bread (sooo yummy) and ham and pineapple kabobs. My brother, Trey, went to three different party stores but had no luck finding us some Hawaiian accessories to wear. We did play Jimmy Buffett's "Mele Kalikimaka" several times to set the mood. The kids did a great job of eating and then taking all the family pictures before opening presents.

All Nana's grandkids: Samantha, Holden, Elic and Preston.

Our "party of five"

The whole gang. It was great to have Richard and Jim with us this year.

Melissa, Samantha, and Trey.

Do you think I look like either of my brothers?

Preston waiting for the "go" signal.

Elic and his stash.

Preston's Christmas definitely had a transformer/super hero theme to it.

And Elic's was all about Handy Manny.

I love this picture. Preston would open a gift and then place it in a line that stretched all the way down the hall. That is SOOOO something Darren would do!

The aftermath.

Holden seemed to enjoy the music and all the entertainment the night brought. Isn't that smile precious? We ended the night with a few rounds of UNO and then headed home to set out cookies and milk for Santa. The boys even braved the snow to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn. I wonder what kind of Christmas theme we'll have next year. Any suggestions?