Christmas Eve 2012

We drove down to PA this year to stay at my parents for 8 days around Christmas and had a great time.  I love having all of my family so close!  Christmas Eve was done a little differently this year in that we did not go to 5pm mass.  It is easily the most crowded mass of the year and having two kids to entertain for 30 to 45 minutes before mass even begins is not easy let alone keep them entertained and well behaved for another hour and all around dinner time makes it nearly impossible.  So we had some family time at my parents before making the trek to my Aunt Bev and Uncle Andrew's home for their annual Christmas Eve party.  It started snowing pretty heavily on the trip to their place...a 35 minute drive turned into 1 hour.  But once we were there we had so much fun!

A huge dinner, gifts to open and lots of space to run around a play, music playing, a fire to gaze into and a tree to touch was how we spent most of our evening....oh almost forgot the stairs.  The kids loved climbing up and sliding down the steps.  We don't have stairs at home so this was a huge hit for the kids.

Katie and Joey.  He was so cute in his elf costume.  He's catching up to Katie fast.  Although he was born over a month early and is 7 1/2 months younger than Katie he weighs almost as much as her.  You might just throw out your back picking him up if you don't have a strong core.  He's solid! Don't say I didn't warn you!!

Joey with Great Grandma.

Santa's helper. 

Katie opening up gifts from Erica, Steve and Joey.

This is what Mikey received from Joey.

Aunt Erica with the babies.



Family pic. with the grandparents and GG. Just missing Bryan to complete the grandkids to date.

Playing under the tree at Bev and Andrews.

Silly Katie.



He liked the manger.  Notice anything unusual??

Ummm..Mikey I don't think Mary, Joseph and the 3 Kings want to admire you tractor.  That spot is for Baby Jesus.



Love their setup for Christmas with the blue and white tree this year for Ashley's graduation from Penn State, the mantle and the fire crackling.

These two were so cute together!  I promise they weren't hurting each other.

In their PJ's ready for the drive home.