Party, Party, Party

I guess it's time to start blogging about something other than Kauai (although if I said that I hadn't seriously considered permanently moving the entire family there and doing nothing but posts about idyllic beaches from now on, I'd be lying). Today we will play catch up and I will use up the photos of the girls at various Christmas shindigs that are clogging up the memory card in my camera.

I don't know how super social, popular people manage their calendars during the holidays. Carter and I are basically anti-social hermits and even we have a staggering amount of social events to attend during the holiday season. It's wonderful to see friends and family (even if it's just a passing "Hi!" as I fix one child a drink and escort another to the bathroom). But wow, I think I'm going to have to lay in my bed for the entire week between Christmas and New Year's to recover. Anyway, we'll start with the ward Christmas party and the shots of the girls with the Big Guy himself:



They were so excited! And nobody cried and refused to sit on Santa's lap when we reached the front of the LOOOONG line! That's unprecedented. It was a Christmas Miracle.

Next, there's Cousin Jack's birthday party. It was held at a barn that is nicer than my house. Those lucky ponies had some seriously posh digs. The kids loved petting all the animals and the yummy birthday cake Aunt Lisa made. Oh, but before we move on to the pictures, I need to apologize to all the guests. I'm pretty sure it was one of my kids that took bites out of the munchies and then returned them to the trays. Sorry about that.







Tessa loved, loved, LOVED that llama. It made her laugh so hard. I wish I had a cute picture of Jack blowing out the candles and opening gifts. But I was doing the drink/bathroom thing. Rats. And you should thank your lucky stars that I have no pictures of the swank Christmas party we attended at a downtown art gallery earlier this week. Those would have been frightening. We were told kids were welcome, but I bet the hosts regretted that decision halfway through Sadie's temper tantrum or Tessa's yanking of my loaded Christmas plate (there was salad and mini cheesecakes everywhere--yeah, I couldn't decide whether to be healthy or decadent)! Piper almost plunged to her death leaning over a balcony. I'm pleased to say that we didn't destroy any works of art, though. That was quite the accomplishment on my part. But yeah, pictures didn't happen.

Finally, we went to a delightful Posse party last night. There were 16 (!) kids among us, so there were some crazy good times to be had. The highlight was the Nativity that Kiley put on for us. (It just barely eked out the top spot over the annual viewing of A Very Posse Christmah! Ah, seeing Santa giving Josh a swirly is always appreciated this time of year!) She had costumes for everybody. Don't ask me how it happened, but Sadie ended up as Mary:



She was so sweet to that Baby Jesus doll. I almost died from the cuteness thereof.



There were numerous angels, shepherds, and Wise People. Garb and Brett were narrators. The kids loved it. So did the adults.


This picture cracks me up. First, you have the angels being "angelic," but you also have Tessa in the background. She's doing her signature backbend move. It earned her the nickname "Shakira" from Aunt Katie in Hawaii (head to YouTube for any of Shakira's recent performances and you'll understand why).




I think this shot of The Virgin Mary with Crazy Eyes is the perfect note to end on. Happy partying, everybody!