Christmas Eve

 I didn't get many pictures of our traditional Christmas Eve Fondue dinner because I was too busy eating.

I don't remember what these kids were watching...I think Christmas Oranges or something.  Christmas Eve was sad for one reason...Melissa had to stay home with Alexis and London because they got sick.  She kept the twins too.  You can see Isabelle is not too perky in this picture either.  By the end of the week I think every family got the dreaded illness.  I hate that part of Christmas!

Here is Sophie taking matters into her own hands, moving chairs around and whatnot.

The Shepherds for the Annual Nativity Program (and their sheep of course!)

Shepherd Austin and Shepherd Luke

Mary, Joseph, and Baby Olive...(Oops, I meant Baby Jesus.)

Pierson's face cracks me up here with Annie.

Baby Jesus was a pretty chubby baby.

The whole crew...look closely at James' face.  (He has the gold outfit and pinkish hat.)  

I didn't notice James' face as we were doing our photo shoot after the story was read, but my brother did.  He told me to watch his facial expressions, so when I looked back at the pictures, I saw what he was talking about!  

Every picture of the group was pretty much the same, except James...

This Wise Man had a new expression for every shot of the camera.  

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the program.

Luke, Ryan, and Sophie taking it in.  Ryan was miserable the entire Holiday.  He had about fifty million cankers. 

Some of the cousins do a song, or tell a story.  James played the cello for us this year. 

These four sang Jingle Bells.

Abigail played the violin, but here I think she is telling a joke???

Here is Pierson giving a tribute to his Mom.

I think Joshua told a joke too...

We ended the night with the gift exchange.  Sadie liked her gift!  Joshua had just had his wisdom teeth out so his face was a little swollen.

Abigail and Chloe.  

Nic was pretty excited about this gift from Grandma.  I think it will come in handy down in Arizona.

And that was it, our favorite night of the year was over.  We all headed to bed.  Later that night, I woke up and peeked downstairs to see if Santa had come.  He had!  I was lucky to catch a glimpse of all the gifts before the kids got up Christmas Morning. 

I was more excited about this doll house than Annie was.  Good thing I have two girls since Annie is not quite as into the whole doll thing as Sophie.  

With six kids, the gifts have to be spread all over the room! 

I wanted to sneak downstairs, but knew I better not.  Instead, I kissed the kids and went back to bed. 

"Silent Night, Holy Night....all was CALM, all was BRIGHT!"

I think I heard something on the roof as I crawled back into bed.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Sunday

I love the Sunday before Church.  Christmas is thick in the air, I love the music,  the focus is on what is really important, and everyone is in a good mood. The boys all looked dapper in their new bow ties for Church.  Joshua actually tied them all.  Pretty impressive.

I had wanted to get a "girl" picture too.  However, it was after Church and Sophie was not cooperating, so I got Luke and Annie instead. 

Sophie was overdue for a nap and literally running away from me. 

You can't catch me behind the tree!

Later that night my whole family came over for dinner and a Christmas message.  We had Spaghetti and Bacon Carbonara, Garlic Bread, and Italian Salad.  It was a fun night. 

Aunt Jennifer showed the kids a video clip about the "candy bomber" in World War II.  It was from a Christmas Special that Tom Brokaw did with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Great story.  Here she is passing out sticks of gum to all the kids to show them what the kids were willing to share with each other in Berlin.  It was a great message about gratitude and kindness.

Then my Dad told the kids about the children and people in Vietnam at Christmas. I love how the kids the kids are so focused in on what he is saying. 

And that was the end of the message...a wrestling match began with the kids and Uncle David. 

I would say he was holding up to the masses pretty well....

Uncle Michael and Uncle Travis got in on the action....

Will had to come over and make sure Dad was okay.  

And I don't know why, but shirts started flying off...

Joshua will kill me, but here he is getting taken down by Sadie!  Ha Ha!

Everyone was tired of wrestling, so the dancing began.   Austin is such a natural dancer and performer! We all get a kick out of watching him!

Even Ryan got in on the action...check out those moves!

Annie is so proud of her back bend.  

It was a great day!  

Party, Party, Party!

Wow, I can't believe Christmas Break has already come to an end.  I haven't caught up on anything.  So here is a little of what we did leading up to Christmas.  First, we had a big "End of the World"/Holiday party at our house.  (The party was on the 21st-End of the Mayan Calendar.) We invited everyone we could think of and our neighbors helped us host it.  The one thing I am really bummed about is the lack of pictures we took!  I guess when you are hosting, picture taking is not a top priority!  The party was a great success....thanks Randy and Jill for all the fun ideas and help!

I had purposely not signed up to help in any class parties for Christmas because I knew it would be a crazy day, especially with the party that night.  However, I caved when the room dad told me he really needed more help. I spent the afternoon in Luke's class helping them make these cute little snowmen.  It was fun to be with him, even though I was seriously busted by the room dad when I forgot the Hot Chocolate.  

I thought everything was still pretty much on track to be ready for the big party that night until I came home to this.  Yes, that is our Christmas Tree I had so beautifully decorated myself.  Yes, Ryan told Joshua to take EVERYTHING off the tree.  There were a few strands of lights that had gone out and being the "engineer" that he is, he decided the best route to go would be to completely take the tree apart and start over-a few hours before the party.  I will just say that my blood pressure might have slightly spiked, but luckily my sister Heidi was in town and she was able to help me put it back together. I will say that he did a fabulous job re-lighting the tree.  And the party did come together, so it all worked out. 

We told people to come dressed "Holiday Casual" OR in their end of the world gear if it would make them feel more comfortable.  I love that Hayley wore this suit.  If you look way back there in the sunroom you can see the REAL confession booth that our neighbors made.  It was awesome. 

The centerpieces on both table were big bowls full of MRE's, flashlights, first aid kits, and other emergency end of the world supplies.  I forgot to take pics of those.  This was our beverage options though-

Our neighbor welded two giant satellite dishes together to create a UFO.  It was then wrapped with Green Christmas Lights and he connected a giant fan underneath to make it sound like it was hovering. Again, I missed a picture of it all lit up! :(

I just thought these pictures of Sophie under the table before the party were cute.  It was hectic with all the adults running around, and we had just had the dog groomed so Sophie was just hanging out with her under the table.  

Prepping...

I hope that any of my Catholic friends/family are not offended by my husband dressed as a Priest.  The party started and one by one our guests came and gave TRUE end of the world confessions to him. 

We also had a nice little game of Russian Roulette with hard boiled eggs.  It was pretty exciting. 

We even had a surprise visit  by Michael, Carly, and their cute kids!  They had just driven all the way from California!

This is Ryan (The Priest) telling the various confessions he was given.  Guests had to guess who had made the confession.  I will just say this part of the party was VERY ENTERTAINING!!!!  We had some seriously funny confessions, but we are all sworn to secrecy!  

Ryan really played up his part, he made an awesome priest!  

It was so much fun I think we might need to have another End of the Year Party!  The best part was that after all the guest had gone, the house was super clean.  Adult parties are very different from kid parties in this way!  

Okay, now I am back tracking in the month...James had his first Orchestra Concert.  He did awesome!  He just started playing the Cello in the Fall and I love to watch him.

I never finished the Milligan Family Christmas Party post.  I think I had left off with our Bowling Party Friday night. 

The next morning we gathered at the Church.  We had all brought loads of clothes, toys, decorations, food, health and beauty products, just about anything.  We then organized it all to be delivered to some people in need.  This is Aunt Marsha and cousin Leslie who came all the way from Colorado.  It was so fun to see them all!  

Cousin-in-law Andrew, cousin Paul, cousin Sam, and Ryan.  It was great to see everyone working together!

Even the kids...

These guys look pretty serious, like maybe they are trying to solve big problems-like world peace.

After the work, we had a yummy lunch with everyone!  Here is Robin and her twin daughter.  (Don't they look like twins?)

Alexis and Emmaline

Joshua with the Pollards.

My cousin Sam and his wife Kacie just had these cute little twin girls.  They were so tiny and cute. 

After the lunch the girls all headed to my Uncle Ron's house to have a little wedding shower for my cousin Julie who got married December 28th. Sophie made herself comfortable. 

Here are my cousin Emily's two daughters (Lucy and Rachel) leading us in a few games for Julie.  

Sophie had so much fun with her second cousin from Colorado.  She kept saying that her cousin was a baby, so she would read her books and follow her all around.  It was really cute!  Too bad they don't live closer!

Emily (who did all the work for the shower...see all those yummy caramel apples back there that she made?) and Kacie, mother of the baby twins.  If you want to know how she made the apples see here. Aren't they both beautiful?

Three of the Walker cousins were able to come...Jamie, Julie, and Leslie.  It was so great to see them! They never age.

Okay, the following picture is of 13 of my Grandma and Grandpa Milligan's 18 granddaughters.  Backrow: Andrea, Holly, Kimberly, Julie, Lauren, Jamie, Candace, Natalie (me).  Front Row: Emily, Leslie, Staci, Jilll, and Jennifer.  

Alright, I am stealing this from Emily's post about the reunion.  She said it much better....I doubt the links will work so I guess I should go back and fix it.  I am just glad she posted who had blogs, because who knew?  I didn't even know about some of these.  

Robin was at the Christmas party, but left right after lunch. We were missing Rebecca in Washington,  Heidi in Arizona, Jodi in Oklahoma, and Angela in Colorado. I love that so many of my cousins (and cousins-in-law, Ally, Carly, and Rachael,) have blogs so we can keep in touch. 

After a quick stop back at Uncle Kent's we headed back home.  But not without a quick photo shoot of the kids throwing snow balls.  

Okay, two holiday parties down, one more small one to recap.

Annie had her little Preschool Holiday party and she could choose to bring ONE guest.  Guess who she chose?  DAD.  It was pretty cute.  So, even though Ryan was smack in the middle of a tight deadline, he took a break to go to her little party.  They had a ball. 

They sang some songs. 

They had a special visitor.  (Oh, and what did Annie say she wanted?  A PUPPY.)  Um, no. 

And good thing Annie was the only kid there that brought a Dad because who better to help make a gingerbread house then a Professional Engineer?  

 And that's a wrap of our Holiday Parties!  I guess we partied so much that when New Years  came we did a big NOTHING.  Both Ryan and I were sick and I think this is the first time since like the 2nd grade that I went to bed before the ball dropped.  Happy New Year.