Christmas Eve

     Working a bit backwards on the blog to Christmas Eve(wanted to post Aunt Cathy's and Mom's gift posts ASAP) So on Christmas Eve, we started out our day by going to our church's Candlelight Christmas Eve service. We did take a few photos by the big tree inside the church, but they didn't turn out well, so here is the one we took at home using a tripod. Pretty nice looking family, if I do say so myself :)

     Later that evening, we started to prepare for some Christmas Eve festivities. We invited another transplant family we are friends with over to celebrate. Since neither one of our families could make it back to our home states for the holiday season, we thought it would be a lot of fun to celebrate together. A night of fun, games, and food was planned for us all to enjoy.

 John pulling out the freshly baked mini french bread sandwich loaves out of the oven. Oh so good!

 The spread was simple with a variety of deli meats...

 and cheeses....

 also different breads and toppings. The DiBenedetto Family also brought some delicious queso dip with chips, spinach dip in a bread bowl (Wonderful!) 

 The kids and I had made Pretzel Hugs

 and Rolo Turtles

     I didn't take a lot of photos of the night, as I wanted to enjoy our time visiting, but also didn't want to look like a freaky photog woman snapping pictures of randomness of our guests. Didn't want to scare off our friends too early-ha ha!

 I did snap some photos of the kids decorating the sugar cookies. Kids don't apply to me looking "nutty" in taking pictures.

 Quite the cookie decorating station!

 JT had fun joining the big kids- as well as eating frosting and sprinkles.

 3 out of the 4 DiBenedetto's- Amanda, Sal, and Monica

 Monica mixing pink frosting. She is a good friend to both Lindsay and Courtney. They all played on the Lady Bucs volleyball team this year and Monica has been in my Small Group at church for the past 3 years.

 Older sister Amanda mixing her favorite color -purple

 Sarah and her bell

 Doug's heart with S+D....awwww

 Amanda was the master decorator- she had beautiful cookies!

 Monica and her pink, brown, and sprinkle cookies

 Lindsay and Courtney about to devour their gingerbread men

 JT's stocking

Somewhere along the line, Monica and  Lindsay had a mini frosting fight. Sarah captured the moment for me, as we were talking with Cheryl and Sal by the fire. From the looks of Lindsay's smile, I'd say she won?

    We finished the night playing Taboo with everyone except JT. Sarah and Doug were the team champions with the Daddy group coming in last place. It was so much fun and we had a great time with our friends.While I know both of our families missed being with our families at Christmas, this was a wonderful alternative.