T'was the Night Before Christmas...

For the past few years we've spent our holidays driving from one place to another.. rushing to eat, trying to visit. By the end of the day we were exhausted, and not always in the best of moods. We've finally decided that its just not worth it anymore. We came the conclusion that we would spend Christmas Eve with my family, and Christmas Day with Cody's. That way we aren't rushing, and we can actually sit and enjoy ourselves. We had Christmas Eve at my Mom's house.. she loves entertaining in her new house. There's a lot of space, and even with our entire family there it doesn't seem cramped. Half the time you don't even know the kids are there because they're off playing in the playroom. It tends to get a little chaotic when we all get together so this has been a nice buffer for family parties. Mmmmm.. lasagna... Last year we decided to start a tradition, family lip syncs. Each family organizes a lip sync/skit/dance.. well each family is SUPPOSED to organize one. We had a lot of losers this year that didn't do it. I know every party has A pooper, but since when do we have TEN? Pretty much a few of us were ready for competition. My mom, who courageously and AWESOMELY did one by herself, the McPherron's (cause we're awesome), and the York's (cause they wish they were awesome).

We went first...


Then, the awesome wannabe's went...


Then my mama...

I can't get their videos to load.. I'll try later or put them on a separate post.

A few of the kids decided to throw together some songs at the last minute.. Conner and Braeden... Cadence... Ashlyn and Lynsie... Apparently, she farted on Santa's lap. I knew I smelled something funny.. Then we all voted on our favorite entertainer, and played Pictionary while Jay tallied up the votes. And the winner is... TEAM MCPHERRON!!! Thats right SUCKAS!! Yeah, we totally knew all along. (Well, one can HOPE, right? We did spend a couple of hours getting together/making our props and rehearsing, afterall.) We opened our one Christmas Eve present.. pj's of course. Then we headed home. My cousin David just moved here from California and he was coming to our house to spend the night. As we were putting out presents, and preparing to go to bed so Santa could come, Cody realized that we had forgotten batteries for Kapri's ball popper.. him and Dave made a quick run to Walgreen's and saved the day!! Or night, whatever. ...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...the stockings were hung by the chimney, with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there!!!