Christmas Eve Celebrations Part 1

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve at Hope and Chris's house. We decided to do a low key meal this year. Everyone contributed a couple of appetizers to the meal...it was a huge hit and a new tradition. We enjoyed red-neck salsa (sometimes called red-neck caviar), bacon wrapped scallops, potato skins, a parmesan and ranch cheese ball, crab dip with french bread, mini ham and swiss cheese sandwiches, sausage balls and for dessert strawberries, pineapple, bananas and marshmallows with chocolate fondue :) It was all so yummy and we were stuffed when it was all over and the best part was that nobody had to slave away in the kitchen for hours! We started the evening with present opening then moved on to eating before opening our stockings. We ended the evening with yummy desserts.

The tree with all presents!


The kids before the chaos of opening presents began!


Caleb wanted to use this plastic knife to assist him in opening presents..silly boy!


Caleb got a remote controlled helicopter and he was thrilled!


Madison had been asking for this baby since we went to Disney in October so she was thrilled.


Taylor got a huge art kit with all kinds of materials to work with..she was so excited!


Caleb loved this orange puffy vest!


Madison loved her furry boots they are just like Taylor's :)


Matt got a Cool Water gift set!


Nana got a beautiful blue sweater.


Hope got the cutest chip and dip set...I will be borrowing this in the future.


Pops got a blue sweater...him and Nana can match according to Madison!


After we ate we opened all of our stockings. We have a tradition in our family that we all buy a gift for everyone's stocking. The gift must be no more than $10. It is a nice to have 8 small gifts to open. I get more excited about buying for the stockings than anything...I sometimes purchase these gifts months and months in advance.