Family Christmas Party

My family's Christmas party was on December 18th down at Mom and Dad's house.

The evening started with me locking the keys in the car. I only mention this because I know it will come up. I went out to get a bottle for Ben from the trunk. I was mixing stuff together and put the keys down. Kevin drove up, I got distracted, and closed the trunk. It was about halfway down when I realized what was happening. I blame Kevin for the whole thing.

Being 30 minutes from home and the spare set of keys, Jill and RaShelle suggested we just call the police. Since Mom & Dad live in a smaller town, so it was kind of an ordeal to even contact the police. RaShelle took the lead and got ahold of someone for us. Joel went out to wait for them in the cold. When the police officer got there he was a little dissappointed. Apparently there was another Joel Harrison that had several warrants outstanding. He was hoping he had caught his man. Really, would a guy that has warrants out for his arrest call to have the police break in to his car?

Anyway, while Joel was out waiting in the cold, the rest of us started eating. We had a yummy lasagna dinner with salad and bread. There's nothing that says Christmas more than lasagna.

After dinner we sat around and talked for a little while the kids played. For the last two years, RaShelle has given all of us questions to answer throughout the year, for example, What is your favorite movie; Did you have a hideout as a child, etc. At Christmas she compiles everyone's answers and prints us all off a copy. It's really fun to read through. It was really interesting to hear that both Mom and Grandma wanted to be opera singers when they grew up. It was fun to sit around and elaborate on some of the answers--especially Dad's. Mom said that she had to edit some of his answers :) This is what happens when we leave the kids alone to play. I guess they weren't alone--Joel helped Jenna put Ben in the doll stroller.

There was only one family missing from the party and that was Jill's so we called her and talked to her through Skype. We were able to talk to her and Caitlyn. We saw Caleb really quick, but he must have been too busy for us. We didn't talk long but it was sure nice to see Jill.

Next we went and acted out the nativity. We read it out of a pop up book that we used to read every year growing up. It is really beat up but it really brings back memories.

The narrator

Kevin really gets into it. Here he is helping the angels with their part

Next was the part that all the kids were waiting for--PRESENTS! Mom & Dad spoiled everyone. The kids all got warm clothes and the parents got gift cards. We drew Kyle's name and got him a gift card to Famous Dave's. We thought it was kind of boring so Jenna drew him a picture. She spent about an hour on it as well as 1/2 a package of googly eyes and a bottle of glue. She was so excited to give it to Kyle. It was all wrapped up and she could hardly contain himself. Kyle was nice enough to let her help him open it.

Ben opening presents

He was more interested in his socks than the presents

Brian won an iTouch the night before and was playing with Kevin's all during the party.

We finished the night with tons of yummy desserts. We had a lot of fun! Thanks Mom & Dad for letting us crash your house!