Family Christmas Party

Every year in December, a few weeks before Christmas, Jesse's family rents out a local town hall to celebrate Christmas with the extended family. As I've mentioned before, Jesse's mom is one of 11 kids so there are quite a few people that attend.

The day was filled with arts and crafts, kids running all over, lots of hugs, sooo much food, an ugly sweater contest, a visit from Santa, and good conversation.

Lol - Amy's expression

Riley wanted  nothing to do with Santa as usual. We've never really pushed her, but encouraged her to at least walk up to get her gift. Many years she makes Jesse or myself walk up with her, but this year she went up on her own and even sat on his lap. I think she saw all the other kids doing it and decided it would be ok. Santa was trying to get her to smile, but I think she was just trying to keep her cool.

Riley loves drawing and creating so we thought the Spirograph would be the perfect gift. And we were right - she's been playing with it so much that the pens are running out of ink and it's only been three days. You could say it's been a big hit. I've been reliving my childhood as well - pretty much everyone over the age of 40 at the party commented on how they had this as a kid.

I had no idea that people were going with an ugly Christmas sweater theme this year. Funny thing is, I almost put Riley in an ugly Christmas sweater that she received as a hand me down. Jan (third from the right) was the lucky winner of the contest, but honestly, they were all winners in my book for wearing them in the first place.

We had a special treat with these two singing for us while the little girls danced to their music.

It was another fun party with some new faces in the room (including an adorable little baby), a few new food items (always so much food and I want to try it all), and lots of hugs. Seriously, these people like to hug.