Christmas Eve Party

For Christmas Eve we celebrate with my dad's side of the family. This year was a small group, but we had a really nice time. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! We ate dinner, talked, exchanged gifts and played games. It was also nice to see Roy & Anne (My dad's brother & his wife). Our kids also enjoyed seeing their granddaughter Lilly.

My dad's side of the family is from Norway, so for Christmas Eve we always celebrate keeping some of their traditions. We always eat Norwegian meatballs and for dessert we have the rice pudding with strawberry topping. My aunt Anne always makes this for the whole family. The tradition is that whoever gets the almond in their bowl of pudding wins a marsipan pig (which my aunt also makes). This year Jazzy won!

Each year we are visited by a Norwegian Santa Clause who has a white beard and he wears a Norwegian sweater and socks. He usually knocks at the door and passes out all the gifts. This year Tyler was petrified of Santa. It was quite sad. Every time he saw him he would scream out in fear. As you can see in the picture.

My cousin Lise knitted us these cute scarves! She lives in California and couldn't come this year so we thought we'd take a few fun photos to show off her talent!!







My sister Sherry, me & my sister Shelly.

Here our scarves doubled as hats!

Shelly had me rolling off my chair with this look!!!

Here are a few more pictures of our family.....


Our Little Christmas carolers!


Tyler with grandpa & grandma


Our cute boy with his favorite blanky & new football!

Tyler loves hanging out with pa-pa.
Although it looks like Tyler can't quite get enough to drink!

Libby & Jazzy
As Libby would say, "We aren't just cousins, we're best friends!!"