Tis the Season for... Christmas Parties and Santa!

We have had family Christmas parties on the past two Sundays both with a special visitor, Santa :). Last Sunday we had just sat down to dinner when Santa Clause showed up. All the kids were very excited but I think most the adults were just hungry! Except for my dad who is more a kid at Christmas time than most of the actual kids. He is thinking of buying a suit and being one of "Santa's Helpers" next year. If you know my dad he would do a great job! Santa distributed presents, I got a $50 Gap card and Ryan got an itunes gift card. We were very excited. (Especially me...losing 39 lbs. (as of now) I am in need of some new clothes:) ).

After we opened presents and sang songs Ryan and I introduced a new game to my family of passing a present while the book 'The Night Before Christmas' is read and then yo get the present you end up with. It kind of back fired because everyone ended up with the present the started out with...and of course some kids cried because they didn't like their treat. It was a lovely idea:). Then Ryan and I recreated the Nativity Story using the grand kids. You can all imagine how great that was... When all was said and done we finished off the party with a little bubbly that Debbie (Ryan's mom brought) and we toasted to the Christmas Season and we all went around and shared one thing we are grateful for. For most of the kids that consisted of Play Station 3's and Wii's. But it was really nice to hear all the wonderful things that my family was grateful for. And my Grandma gave a very sweet testimony that we all enjoyed, she is a great lady! Over all the parties have been fun and we are happy to be around family for the Holidays this year!