More Christmas in PA (catch-up)

I really don't remember what we did on the Monday after the Christmas concert so I went over to my sister Carly's blog to see what she had and her comment was that she couldn't remember either!  Oh my, I know that Kimi and Kelly probably came over with their kids and that we probably ate some of those Christmas concert leftovers but other than that, I've got nothing!  At some point Jay was feeding Emily some of a donut and we captured the moment on camera:

Jay is over a year older than Emily but they are pretty comparable in weight, Jay is a peanut

Emily may also be bigger because she eats a lot, even stealing a donut from little Jay

It looks like Jay is concentrating pretty hard

Monday evening Grandma and Grandpa had arranged for all of the family to gather at Mimi's house for soup and sandwiches.  Emily ate a ton of the tomato tortellini soup that Mimi made.  It was great to catch up with cousins and fun to watch my girls interact with my cousin Katie's son Wyeth.

TUESDAY was New year's eve!  Grandma and Grandpa came in the morning to give out their Christmas gifts to the kids.  They got all of the grandkids matching outifts!  We thought it would be a great opportunity to get a picture.  As you can see below, our timing was a little off.

Haley and Kelsey helped pass the gifts out

All ready to open their gifts

Calla, Kelsey and Haley put their matching shirts on right away

We got a couple good pictures of the three oldest

They are getting too big!

We've got four out of the eight crying

It went a little better when we put Grandma and grandpa in there too

We thought they were hungry so we fed them crackers.  

The kids took naps in the afternoon while we prepared for our big evening meal.  We celebrated our 'Christmas dinner' on New Year's Eve and then after the kids went to bed, the adults exchanged gifts.  Mimi made a delicious meal of ham, potatoes, and a bunch of sides.  Kelly brought corn casserole, Kimi brought a salad, and Rin brought a green bean casserole.  We all ate and then hung out for a while until the kids went to bed.  In the meantime we attempted another photo shoot.  

This is the best one we got of the girls, of Haley at least

a family pic

Our family dinner

Maya was taking a nap so Clark held a doll to represent her

At least we tried

Calla, Kelsey, and Haley with a cheesey smile

It was a pretty good idea to open gifts without the kids!  It went a lot smoother and faster without them.  After we exchanged gifts we played a bunch of games until midnight when we went downstairs to watch the ball drop in Times Square (on the TV of course).  Then we came back upstairs and played more games.  It was a great way to start 2014.

On New Year's day we pretended it was Christmas day.  The Fentons, Mountzs, and Iyas came over and we all had Christmas breakfast and then all of the kids exchanged gifts and opened gifts from Mimi and Pops.  We got a group shot before we started opening gifts.  This was actually one of our more successful photo shoots.  I guess we could hold the present opening over their heads.

Pops reading the Christmas story before we started

Emily did keep trying to escape

From left to right: Ellie, Jay, Emily, Haley, Calla, Kelsey, Maya, (Aunt Kelly), and Clark

Emily opening a gift

Haley with one of her favorite gifts, a cd from Aunt Kelly

Opening gifts

Emily got a doll from Mimi, she loves it

Aunt Carly got Emy a backpack with her name on it

Ellie and Emy with their backpacks

One of the gifts from Mimi was a basket for Haley to put all of her dress-ups in, she tried it out herself first.

Emily playing with her doll

We spent the rest of Tuesday playing with our new presents, the kids at least.  Mom made traditional pork and sauerkraut for dinner alongside some of the leftover ham from the night before.  Uncle Jonathan had to take off just after our meal so he could catch his plane back to Chicago.  Fortunately he left Carly and the kids behind to hang out for a couple more days.  In the evening we put the kids to bed and played more games!