'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

and the first party on our books
was breakfast at Jeremiah's; they have really good cooks.

Then a party with family, the kids put on a play,
They're supposed to be Mary, Joseph, and Jesus on the first Christmas Day.

After a yummy "who" feast, let the games begin.
We started with "Who" Bingo, which brought a few grins.

OK, this will not rhyme, but we had to take a picture of the items used for "Who Bingo." Since we had a "Grinch who Stole Christmas" theme, all of our food got a Grinchy name. My oreo chocolate balls became who balls. We listed things associated with the Grinch, who is hairy, but unfortunately the next thing on the board was who balls. Brought a few laughs.

What would Christmas Eve be without the M&M's game,
By now my kids were pretty glad they came.

The last game of the night involved chucking lots of trash,
The clean-up really was done in a flash.

Here's Faith with her Great Grandma Grace,
The trash throwing gym wasn't really their place.

Then off to Mammy's where
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

In hopes this St. Nicholas would trim his beard and hair.
Every year my mom hosts the great Christmas race where we have to compete for our pajamas. Each child pairs with an adult to see who can be the fastest at throwing snowballs down the hall, putting paper ornaments on the tree with suction from a straw, guessing which items are in the stocking, and making a Santa suit out of batting and tissue paper. Jeff made this great costume for James.

Megan is sporting her costume Michelle made.

Wendell made this for Tyler.

Emily's costume is quite gnomish. I was in a hurry!

We all thought Doug did the best job on Spencer's hat.

And Faith watched it all.

Another event in the Christmas race was carrying candy on this spoon to dump in a cup.

We ended with trying to fill in the blanks of The Night Before Christmas. There is a lot to that poem that none of us knew. We liked our version better.

We won our pajamas, the games are all done.
It's off to bed to wait for Santa to come.