Christmas Eve

 Oh the fun of family traditions and the occasional tweeks of those traditions to make them even better. 

Ornament making.....

Just look at that concentration

This year we used pipe cleaners, pony beads, bells and ribbon for our creations.

No glue gun involved.  George was really the brains behind this project. If I am honest, he is the brains behind most projects.  I get the ideas and then he works out how to accomplish what I want.

I think our stars turned out quite well.

I love the creativity and slight differences.

As per our new tradition, we had Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup, delicious rolls and lunch meats and cheeses.

I love using my Christmas Spode!  

Next we played games.  This year instead of coming up with all the games myself, I asked each of the kids to plan a game. Very fun to have some new games mixed in with a couple of the old standbys, like Isabella's favorite 'Christmas Tree Stack'.  When she tried stacking them a couple of weeks ago, she had problems but she has practiced and practiced.  That effort paid off as she was just about as fast as the adults.

A couple of our games involved marshmallows - 'Hungry, Hungry Reindee' and 'Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Toss'.

SO we ended up with a trash can full of uneatable ones. 

Grandpa Lewis would be upset at the waste but Dr. Karen would be happy at avoiding eating marshmallows that had passed through multiple hands!

Scott was our overall game winner this year!

His first win!

I think that Matt has won twice,  one of his friends won once, George won once, Monica won once, and now Scott puts his name in the winners column.

Cady had a great idea that we should get a trophy to pass around.  

I definitely plan to do that next year.

After our chocolate fountain dessert, everyone went home to wait for Santa's arrival.

And big thanks to George for also master minding the chocolate fountain each year!

It's a labor of love.