Christmas Eve Party

I was delighted to be able to make it to the Christmas Eve party this year.  It's been 2 years and it's always so fun.

Chris likes to say that it's like the family in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  It's not, but I like that comparison.  Though on this night, it looks a little bit like that.

The collection of uncles usually do something ridiculous to the "new guys," fiances, new boyfriends, new husbands, etc.  (I can't remember what Chris had to do, but it wasn't too bad.)  This year, they made the guys participate in a polka dance-off.  There were 2 new guys (and 1 non-new guy) who were paired up with a few of the aunts, and the aunts had to teach the new guys how to polka, which is basically just a skip around the room.  After a little performance for the crowd, they were judged by a panel of a few of the senior family members So You Think You Can Dance-style, and the winning pair won a free polka cd so that they could practice at home. They made the aunts wear these little old lady costumes as well.  :)

(I feel like I should say that this is all lighthearted and in really good fun.  There is kind of a "what are they up to this year" sort of mentality to it, but they're very mild.  It sounds a little crazy as I'm typing it up, and I promise it's not.  Or at least not that crazy.)

This was the first year that Chelsea's boyfriend attended, so he and mom had to polka together.  They did a pretty good job.

The older kids sat on the stairs to watch the action.

I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted to, or of everyone at the party because I kept having to duck out with Hannah, who was overwhelmed to say the least.  We had just come from a Christmas Eve service at church where we were swarmed with people who wanted to see us and her, and the same thing happened at the party.  It was just a lot more commotion and excitement than she is used to and she kept bursting into tears.  Poor little thing.

Jayce, however, had no problems.  He found his cousins, and though they hadn't seen each other in over a year, he jumped right in to playing with them and their stuff.  Despite how much he doesn't like Santa, when posed with the option of sitting on his lap or not getting his present, he went over and hugged Santa.  The boy has his priorities.

Hannah was pretty mellow with Santa.  She checked him out and was fine with him.  It was a better response than she had given a few of her uncles.

The party went too quickly, each of us going up to get our presents, pose for photos, open presents, pose in groups, etc.  It was a busy night with a lot of visiting, noise, and holiday cheer crammed into just a few hours.

Overall it was a great Christmas Eve, as always.