Family Christmas Party

It was a ton of food, fun, and chaos at the Schow Family Christmas Party on Saturday night. There was a ton of talk of babies (Congrats to Steve and Christin) which may have been quite boring to those of you without babies (as Madeline pointed out). But overall, I think everyone had a lot of fun. I thought the White Elephant gifts this year were top notch (even though it may take me all year to forgive Ed and Annie for sending us home with two, live fish). As always, it was good to be together and see everyone again. Merry Christmas (until next year)!

Santa (from the 'hood):

I probably should have given some warning to the people in the following pictures...SORRY! I just panned around the room, and I don't think everyone was ready.

We ended the evening with Grandpa accompanying several favorite Christmas songs on the guitar while the kids danced around the room.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had such a wonderful time at dinner on Christmas Eve (and we missed everyone that couldn't make it). We had the entire restaurant to ourselves so I didn't worry too much about the rowdy children (my rowdy children to be more specific). We don't get to see each other very often, and I love catching up with everyone. The food was delicious, and the company was so much fun.  Merry Christmas everybody!

The classic "Grandpa Strangle Hug":

My favorite part of this next picture is Abby's tongue in Lisa's drink. I wonder if Lisa realized this later when she went to drink it. Hmmm....

The kind, generous, thoughtful people who funded this wonderful evening:

Everyone was excited to see Jeff again, but Grandma and Grandpa were particularly captivated. Although, in the future, I think it would be much more fun if we went to visit him. I seriously doubt that there would be a Christmas Eve blizzard on Maui.

My favorite picture of the night: