What a fun tradition

Christmas Eve every year we do something I love. My family gathers together and since we always have a big feast on Christmas Day... we choose to do a dinner of hor d'oeuvres and desserts only for Christmas Eve. This year I made a Chocolate/Orange Ricotta Cheese cake, Chocolate covered cherry "mice" with the girls and a Christmas Tree cake I let the girls go crazy on---

Here we are at my mom's house before we all "dug on in"...

This is my dad holding Kean. Don't you love how their outfits are perfectly coordinated?

This is my big brother, Doug, his wife Dana (holding Kean) and one of the twins: Lindsey.

And here's the rest of the crew (almost)-- poor Derek-- my nephew who always gets mauled by the girls-- and that's Katie on the right (the other twin).

These are Dana's parents-- Ken and Nedra who are like a dear Aunt and Uncle to me. We've been getting together for special occasions since my brother married into their family.

And here's my mom and dad-- Dee and De in their new house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Perhaps, I should say in the new party house.

Elly and Mark Moomey joined us again this year for the Christmas Eve festivities. Ron stayed home sick with a sore throat (I think he didn't want to expose Kean-- so thanks Ron).

And that brings us to one of the highlights of the holidays for me-- the annual Leavitt-Barker family pageant. Hopefully, it's not too irreverent. Let me interpret the pictures for you. Byron is the donkey bringing in Mary (Holland) and Joseph (my niece Morgan-- hey we have a massive shortage of boys in our family). By the way, Byron is almost always the donkey. Also known in Biblical terms as the ass. Tee, hee.

I know this will come as a shocker--- but guess who played baby Jesus? Yeahhhhh, we finally have a baby boy in the family to play Jesus.

Yours truly and Aunt Dana played the Shepherds. Reese, Greer and Katie were the angels. We always have more than enough volunteers wanting to be Mary or the angel. I guess it's easier to have a trio of angels rather than duplicate Mary's.

Elly offered to be the star. It's a good thing she works out. My arm would never have held up!

And here are the three Wiseguys-- I mean Wise men: Mark, Lindsey and Derek.

Grammy always reads the Christmas story.

I love this yearly tradition and won't let my mind go down the road and think about what it will be like when we are all adults trying to act this out.