Harmony and Havoc: Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we all went to my parents' house along with my sister's family and the sister missionaries. We started with our traditional Mexican FEAST (so much food!), and then had a family talent show. My favorite talents were our beatboxing/dancing kids (see pics) and my niece's hilarious practical joke. She had each younger cousin come into the room alone, and had them repeat a series of phrases designed to get Santa to come faster. At one point they were instructed to stand up, and right at that moment, her dad would slip a sopping wet folded towel onto the chair. Each time, the child would shriek and jump up. It was so funny!

After the talent show, my dad handed out adult and child quizzes to test our knowledge of the Christmas story. We all learned some new things, like why it was necessary for Mary and Joseph to travel for their taxes and the census. This wasn't Roman law, but Jewish law - they had to travel back to their ancestral home.

We ended with opening the gifts from my parents. It was lots of fun!

My cute sister with her creeper husband (just kidding, J!)

Lily and her idols. She can't wait to serve a mission just like them!

French braiding torture

My Daddy-o

Beck is all about the presents

Don't we have a photogenic family? Stunning, just stunning!

Cora

Zoe being creeped on by her uncle J ;o)

Waiting for the talent show to start

Huddling up before the beatbox/break dancing show

Beatboxing buddies

Jackson doing his thing

Jackson playing "Jolly Old St. Nicholas"

Sofie playing "Families Can Be Together Forever"

Maizie playing "Silent Night." The tongue helps.

My niece, K, doing her rump-soaking talent ;o)

The next victim

Wet hineys!

Lily fingerspelling at lightning speed

My beautiful mommy

My mom and I playing "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful"

J singing a Christmas song he wrote whilst sitting atop Zoe whilst she texts. Wait - he didn't write the song whilst sitting atop Zoe. You know what I mean.