Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to the Rasmussen house where it was totally crazy.  The guests?  Megan, Jared, and their six kids.  Kayli, Brett, and their six kids.  Wyatt and Lindsay Ann with their four kids.  Ethan and Kourtney.  Then we added our seven kids to the mix.  It was a little bit crazy but not nearly as crazy as I expected.  The kids dispersed themselves throughout the house and played and played and played.  

Mom, Megan, Danica, Kayli and I got in a little singing.  That's my favorite thing, so I was happy.  There was a lot of random Catch-Phrase played.  The Catch-Phrase game was going on and off all night in one room and people joined and left as they were so inclined.  

We had hoagies, which I thought would be problematic because of the time involved in building the perfect sandwich, but the line moved along and everyone had food quickly and without any delays or problems.  Besides that, the food was DELICIOUS.  

My favorite part of the evening was how much the Rasmussen grandkids love baby.  Almost every single grandkid made his or her way over to me at some point to pat Clover's head or tell me how cute she was.  I love how much they all love babies.

 Mom trying to capture the chaos on film.  This is right before we opened pajamas.  We went in age order so first was Clover, then Oskar, and then only two other grandkids before Harriet (Natalie/Wyatt).  We had the three youngest kids there (almost)!!!

 Clover's pajamas.

 Oskar's pajamas.

 Monsters!

 Harriet's pajamas.

 Harriet's pajamas have little elves all over them.  It is hard to see in the picture.  You can tell that she is looking a little under the weather.  She was fine right until we made it to Grandma's and then all of a sudden her eye turned red and got all boogery and her nose started to run.  Christmas day we took her to the doctor and she had an ear infection and sinus congestion.  Poor thing.

 Eli's cowboy pajamas.

 Emeline's rock and roll pajamas.

 Cowen's sporty pajamas.

 Eli.

 Eli and Anders as shepherds.

 Mom tried to keep all the Nativity participants on the stairs, but they kept coming in to see what was going on.

 No idea why Joseph is blessing Mary.  That sure is a beautiful baby Jesus.

 Devaney as the star.

 Angels making their grand entrance.

 Viewers.

 More trying to get kids where they were supposed to be.  LOVE Cowen in the background.

 Mary wasn't always appropriately postpartum.

 The Roman soldier aka Ethan.

Oskar really wanted that red phone but he was too scared of Ethan to go get it.  That byplay distracted some of the audience for quite awhile.  Very funny.

In short--it was a wonderful night with lovely memories made.