Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve was absolutely perfect this year. We had the entire Curtis Clan together and we packed the day in with gingerbread houses, our nativity production, cousins and sibling gift exchange and yummy dinner.
The gingerbread house making aren't necessarily a new tradition, but the fact that we made them all together on Christmas Eve was new and I think we will keep it that way. It was a bit of a competition which made it that much better. I loved that my brothers were so into it and thought using a kit was totally ridiculous. I should have gotten pictures of their "architecture masterpieces!" My kids loved decorating with...and eating... the frosting and candy. They were quite specific, especially Capri, on what candy should go where and I was eating it up.

And this was pretty much how our Nativity went...

Kind of a disaster! London was Mary, Spencer was a donkey, Roman a shepherd, Capri the angel, Karoline the star, Eli the Wise Man, and Kaleb was Joseph. It wasn't organized at all, but I think the kids got the idea!
Just my family on my favorite day of the season...

 After our fabulous dinner, lots of Just Dance, and an awesome gift exchange, it was time to wind down. Tucker and I took the kids home to get ready for Santa to come. We put out the cookies and milk and then the kids were surprisingly ready for bed. Good thing considering we had plenty to prepare! My annual Christmas Eve picture in the big red chair...

 And one more in front of the tree for good measure...

Good Night!
Christmas Day was another full day! The kids woke up as eager as ever. We opened presents from Santa including a Wii and a cage...for a hampster...wow. Who knew Santa would actually bring exactly what the kids asked for, even if it meant bringing a live animal. To say the kids were excited would be a huge understatement. They immediately named him Buddy and were asking a million questions about where he was from and how Santa brought him. It was pretty great as far as gift reactions go!
Much to the kids dismay, we left Buddy for the day as we left for Grammy's house. Fortunately, cousins, Grammy and Grampy, and even more presents kept plenty of smiles on their faces. It was so much fun to have Tyler and Mindy in town for Christmas. Tanner and Drew were there as well and together we had such a fun day. We didn't take nearly enough pictures, but they would have been of us eating because I swear we ate all day! Nothing quite like cinnamon rolls and German Pancakes for breakfast, and then a full Thanksgiving dinner that night. Simply divine. All of the grandkids got mini Ipads from Grammy and Grampy...can we say spoiled?!..so they were very entertained. I did snap one picture before we left...

I had Karoline sitting in between Isla and Naomi when she fell from standing on the couch, right onto her head. We finally got her to calm down enough to sit with Ava...

It will have to do! These kids were so cute together-they had missed each other so much and it made for a fabulous Christmas!