The night begins with a big potluck dinner. Just imagine something like 20 adults and 36 children squeezing into a tiny little basement to eat. It's a bit crowded and loud, but also nice to see everyone in one place enjoying the day together. Shawn and I also brought the traditional "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake. This year, I remembered to get candles so we were able to properly sing "Happy Birthday!"
After dinner it's Santa time. Mr. Claus makes an appearance to deliver bags of presents to the younger kids in the family. This year, our nephew Ronnie played Santa and the youngest kids were very, very excited to see him. This is some of the little ones eagerly anticipating the gifts to come...
After Santa, Shawn's mom and dad give even more gifts to the kids and adults. Shawn and I got a ton of fun gifts from them, including a carpet cleaning vacuum which I have been wanting/needing for awhile now.
Shawn and I also had gifts for our godchildren. I only have one godchild to buy for, but Shawn has five, so we decided to go with a mixture of cash and Webkinz for the kids. Here's Shawn and his goddaughter/niece, Tori, who seems to have liked her gift...
And here are our new nephews. Jenny's son, Austin...
And Cheryl's little Santa baby, Noah...
After all the gifts were opened we played a rousing game of Family Feud. At the end of the night, Shawn and I went to midnight mass together, which we've done every year since we met.
Both of us really enjoy getting to spend Christmas Eve with his family. We are really lucky to have his mom and dad and all his brothers and sisters living so close by and that we all get to spend the holidays together. It's really a blessing to have such a large, close-knit family.
-- Lisa
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