The Big Christmas Eve party

When I was a kid, I seemed to wait all year for Christmas and the big family Christmas Eve party. I almost liked Christmas Eve better than Christmas morning (almost). Now that I'm older and have a daughter, I hope to make Christmas just as fun and exciting for her as my family did for me. We now hold the party at my parents cabin. Usually we spend the whole day up there, eating, opening presents, sledding and doing the nativity. This year, we did everything but sledding, due to a lack of snow, unless you want to count the skidding, falling and sliding we all did as we attempted to make it to the cabin. Due to the warm weather, rain and then freezing at night, the road to the cabin was covered in sheer ice. It was quite interesting seeing the Exterra, Dick's truck and the rest of the family trying to figure out just how we were actually going to get to the cabin! We definitely found out that 4 wheel drive and new tires don't matter on ice. We eventually made it and only lost one pie as it slid down the hill.
Once we all made it in safely to the cabin, the fun started. We ate and ate and then ate some more. We did our annual nativity with my dad reading from the Bible, Austin as the donkey (usually Jared gets this role, but got out of it this year). We even got my brother Alan and my brother-in-law Dick to be a part of the nativity scene. Kennedy made her first appearance in the nativity as a very cute angel. She danced along when we sang songs and chattered with Dick most of the time.
We ended the day with my parents tradition of the grandkids giving homemade ornaments to Grandma and Grandpa. Kennedy had some help from mom, but will hopefully be doing it on her own soon, since mom's creative abilities are pretty sad. Then my
parents opened their gifts from us and they gave the grandkids and kids all of our presents. My parents always make something homemade every year for the grandkids. I was pretty excited that we would finally get one for Kennedy, since I never got one as a kid. They are always so cute and as always, this year's was very cute. It was a little wooden snowman that my dad made and my mom painted. I also won the doorprize which was a nice nativity scene. It will look great with my nativity collection. I seem to be pretty lucky with the doorprize. I think I have won 3 of the last 5 years! I am the golden child, you know!
Anyway, the day ended with some great dessert that Paul and Carrie made. We had a fun day and Kennedy enjoyed being around her cousins. We wore her out and she fell asleep in less than a minute as we headed for a quiet Christmas Eve at home. When we got home, the entire neighborhood was lit up with the luminaries that one of our neighbors organizes every year. We took Kennedy for a chilly walk and listened to her ooh and ahhh at the lights. We had a fun Christmas Eve and I'm sure Christmas Day will be just as fun. Merry Christmas everyone!