Christmas Eve

We began our day with a DeMartini Family breakfast at Christopher and Tysen's house.  We had a delicious meal, then exchanged cousin presents.  We have done this on Christmas day, but last year we had to do it on Christmas Eve because Guy and Mikayla were going to be out of town on Christmas, and we all liked it.  The kids were delighted to be getting presents a day before Christmas, and are always glad to be with cousins.  Unfortunately, Bryan and Melissa weren't with us.  We missed them!
Before we left, as I was preparing fruit, I had Brandt wrap presents.  He wrapped all the family photo books.  He's a good worker.

We got home from breakfast and wrapped presents.  Brandt and Blythe wrapped their presents for each other, and a few extras I let them help with.  We did dinner food preparations, and then took off for Sandy and Barrus Family Christmas Eve celebrating.  We met up at the Institute Building again, the perfect venue for a lot of Barri.  I made two large pans of gratin and shrimps as an appetizer.  

We had a great time with Barrus cousins.  There were lots of us this year.  David and Sharon were there with almost all their kids and grandkids.  Only Brooke and Eric were missing.  Lee, Cammie, and Aaron came, as well as Ian and Jodi, and Katie and Kristy with all their groups, plus us and some friends of David and Sharon.  Most lucky of all, Grandpa George was in town.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a group picture.  Makes me sad because there were really a lot of us there and it would have been a great shot.  

After dinner, we had a white elephant gift exchange.  I got an excessively large wrench, Blythe got a small gumball machine with no gumballs, but she put marbles in it, Brandt got a little packet of Legos, and no one can remember what Kent got.  Because we were such a big group, we gave each person only 30 seconds to pick a gift and open it, or steal someone else's and have them pick a new gift and open it.  The whole thing went very smoothly and didn't take nearly as long as it has in years past.  Sharon then rallied all the little kids for a stirring performance of the nativity, complete with songs we all sang, a visit from angels, and the birth of baby Jesus.  I did get a picture of our talented performers.  Aunt Sharon had purchased enough jelly-bean pooping animals for all the children to have one, and we left filled with food and the Christmas spirit.

Grandpa won a pair of silly glasses during the white elephant exchange.

He was kind enough to give them to Blythe to bring home.

I can't imagine why he didn't want to keep them.

A wise guy.

Mary/Lucy

Joseph/Jake and Mary/Lucy

Aiden or Ashton, but I don't know which one

Angels Blythe and Aubrey

The cast: Lizzie, Scott, Tyson, Becca and Emma, Katelyn, Aiden/Ashton, Caleb, Emmy, Lucy, Ethan, Jake, Aubrey, Brandt, and Blythe

Brandt and Jake

On the way home we got into a discussion about what relation Brandt and Jake are to each other.

Although Brandt is only a few years older than Jake, Brandt is actually first cousins to Jake's mom, Kristy.

That makes them first cousins once removed.

Jake and Brandt's children will be second cousins, even though they will be closer in age.

We got home from Christmas Eve celebrating and checked out Santa Tracker.  He was getting closer, so Brandt and Blythe quickly got ready for bed.  And although they were in bed at a reasonable hour, I'm not sure how quickly they fell asleep.  Kent and I set about doing last minute preparations for Christmas morning.  We wrapped and filled stockings, and at Brandt's suggestion, put out a root beer float for Santa.  Brandt was absolutely CERTAIN that Santa would prefer a root beer float over a plate of cookies.  Blythe worried about how it would still be good for Santa when he came, because the ice cream would melt, but we promised we would put it out very last thing before we went to bed, and assured her it would still be good when Santa arrived.  

There is always so much excited anticipation for Christmas, and this was certainly true this year.  Blythe especially has been eagerly counting down the days.  It will be wonderful good fun to have it finally here tomorrow.  I hope it's not a disappointment for anyone.

 

 

Blythe has been very concerned about leaving something for Santa.  Her love language is gift giving, and for days she has been worrying about what to give to Santa.  After all, he gives her something every year, and she wants to give something to him, too.  She made the necklace above for Mrs. Claus.  It's got cute wooden balls she wrote on and decorated, as well as jingle bells.  She couldn't really think of what to give to Santa, so she wrote him a nice note, and I assured her that he would be so pleased with her letter and the root beer float.  She didn't need to do anything else.  We'll see if he takes it with him tonight.