Christmas Eve with the Family

Whew. I have to take a deep breath as I start saga of our Christmas blogging. There is a lot to cover, and to be honest, I've been putting it off because its a bit overwhelming. The solution? Blog in pieces and over a few days.

Lets start at the beginning, with Christmas Eve with my family.

As we do every year, we got together with my mom and my big brother and his family on Christmas Eve. This is the second year that we have done Christmas at our house. I love getting to host my family and Christmas is my favorite holiday, so this makes me a very happy girl.

London's hair in rag rollers for the first time ever.

We decided to do lunch and keep it simple rather than a big sit down dinner. I think simplicity is what works best for our family. Mom and I put together a menu with four different "mini sandwiches" and some easy sides. I think they were a hit and they were so easy to put together. In fact, Daniel and I sat on the couch with the kids all morning and watched a Christmas movie until an hour before our guest arrived. Stress free hosting? Yes, please!

As do we every year, we had a crazy amount of presents with only 9 people there to open them. We all love it though, especially the kids.

I cherish each time that all 9 of us are together. My mom, her two kids, and our kids. Its chaotic and loud but its oh so good! Life is so sweet, and I pray that we have many, many more times to all be together.