Just Hear Those Sleigh Bells Ringin'...

The title today comes from the Mr. and Mrs. Claus at Grandma's house.  Those two love singing that song!  Actually, some of grandkids who shall remain nameless (since three of them are mine) like to push the buttons on the Mr. and Mrs. Claus and make them sing that song.

We had our annual Christmas party with Brian's side of the family last Saturday.  I prepared so many presents and Brian made a delicious cheese ball and we forgot to bring food for our babies.  Woops.  They mostly eat people food now anyway, but Emil and Colin got pretty unruly after a few hours.  Thank goodness Santa came early on.  Colin was called up first (the youngest grandchild by one minute) and he was not concerned about the situation.  He probably just wanted Santa's glasses.

Emil was getting ready to wail and make a dive for me, but Santa distracted him with the sound of wrapping paper.  Crisis averted.

Bridget was very brave this year.  She has repeated what she wants so many times that it was easy to talk to Santa.  "A hoola hoop and a scooter." :)

Everyone gets their turn to tell Santa what they want.  Since he's been coming to our family parties for so many years, he knows all of us well.  He did one thing different this year, he sang a song.  Emil loves music - he was riveted by the performance.

Another tradition is having all the kids take a photo with Santa.  I don't know if it's because they're all so big now or what, but it seems like a lot of kids all the sudden.  I guess we did add two baby boys and Linzy's husband since last year.  Still!

Then Bridget and Abby flew to the window and threw up the sash...

Santa drives his truck when it's not Christmas Eve.  Those reindeer need to rest up.

That concludes my picture-taking for the night.  It's a sweaty time when we're at a house other than our own trying to keep the babies out of danger.  I need two hands.  One last image - Brian mentioned how fun it was for him to see his Grandpa sit on Santa's lap because it seemed like they knew each other.  How cool that his Grandpa was friends with Santa!  Adorable.

The party really started after Santa left.  We ate great food (sandwiches and salads and crackers with cheese ball), played our White Elephant Gift Keep or Steal Game (we usually call it the Dice Game, but we didn't use dice this year), exchanged presents with cousins and siblings, heard the Christmas story read by Grandpa.  It's a big deal. :)