"The Equadorian Smith Family" Christmas Party

Last night was our annual family Christmas party over at Gaby and Spencer's house. And it was tons of fun! Gaby made the turkey, veggies, hot chocolate, and potatoes. Us other sisters-in-laws each brought something to add. As we were all talking and waiting for the last people to arrive, Steve and Elaine, we got a call from Steve saying the Elaine was pretty sick and wouldn't be coming. Jenny and Gaby got to "carve" the turkey. None of us really knew what to do without Elaine, so they just winged it.

Once that was all finished, Gaby was making sure everything was ready to go and she touched the casserole dish the potatoes were in and it just exploded, sending glass everywhere. It was insane! So, after we cleaned that up, Matt and Eric went off to find some sort of potato replacement at a grocery store. After that, Steve showed up with some cinnamon rolls that Elaine had made before she got sick and a table for the kids to sit at. So dinner wasn't served exactly on time, but the kids kept themselves entertained:

Andrew was such a good baby, all night!

Katelynn looked adorable and gave me some great smiles. Something about having a baby smile at you makes you feel so special! 

Josh and Jacob both showed off for Grandpa. 

Keldrie loves the babies! 

Then Matt and Eric came back victorious with some potato wedges from Wal-Mart. So it was time to eat!

And when you are a baby who isn't really eating solid food yet, you get to observe the chaos from below.

Aren't those shoes adorable! Katelynn and Jacob were both showing off their crawling skills last night. Poor Andrew just had to sit and watch his older two cousins cruise around. 

After dinner we played a gave similar to Minute-to-win-it. The point was to stack 8 nut bolts on top of each other and hold it still for as long as possible.

It's harder than it sounds. The only one who even managed to stack them all (on their sides, by the way) was Ryan. He also held it for 21 seconds. The clear winner. 

After that, it was time for the real important part: Presents. We started what I think will become a tradition last year. Each family gets assigned another family for presents. The next year you take the brother just younger than the one you had the year before. So last year we had Eric, so this year we had Spencer. The kids loved it. 

After presents were opened, we got to enjoy some of the delicious hot chocolate that Gaby makes. Hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls for desert, what could be better? It was such a great evening. Thanks Gaby for hosting and everyone else for making it such a great evening. I am loving this tradition!