Christmas Eve, Part I - The Party

Christmas Eve started out a bit Rocky this year. As we were getting ready for Church and I was curling Emma's hair, I mistakenly burned her ear with the iron and then never saw her reach up and grab the barrel to pull it away. Sadly, that resulted in 2nd degree burns on her little ear and hand. But thankfully Aunt Janet & Uncle Adam to the rescue - they picked up Emma (Daddy and Ryan had gone off to the kids Christmas Mass, we were sad to miss it) and took her to Janet's Mom's house where she received excellent care. By the time I got there Emma was her normal chit-chatty self and feeling much better. Mrs. Callan even gave her doll, Jennifer Newby, a matching bandage. Thank you so very much!

From there we were on to Grandmom and Pop's for their Christmas Eve party. We love this holiday tradition... it's so fun to get together with everyone the night before and see how excited the kids are. Each year the family grows so it's always a First Christmas for someone, it seems! This year Pop had to work but we sure missed him!

Here's Emma showing off her cool bandage... poor baby, bad mama!

Cousins Ryan, Emma and Tyler... his First Christmas!

Aunt Jen and Tyler Clause!

Halfway through the party, the kids got a special surprise visitor! How nice of Santa to take time from his busy schedule that night to stop by and visit with us.

Emma and her cousin, Andrew. That's how she refers to him... 'My Cousin Andrew!'

Baby Tyler in the jumper... he's just waiting to open presents!