Christmas Eve Entertaining the Family

A candid photo taken by Aydan..what my house really looks like in the morning.  Me..wet hair in a bun, doing dishes. 

I decided it would be great fun to have my family over for dinner Christmas Eve. This meant a lot of work and preparation for us. We had a total of seven dinner guests plus us in my little bungalow. It was warm and snugly here. My brother Steve suggested that I make Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner and so that is what I made. It ended up being yummy. 

I am a firm believer in having kids help get things ready. My kids were driving each other crazy because they were bored out of their gourds. I gave Ellie the job to make name plates for everyone's bowls. She worked SO hard on them and they ended up being a really cute addition to the place settings. Plus it kept her busy for a long time. 

I gave Aydan an assembling job of getting the bowls ready. He had to tie a bow around the napkin and spoon, place in in a bowl with a "cracker" ion top and a plate on the bottom. He finished quickly and so I put him to work in the kitchen. 

Our tree. 

The list of names of family members that were going to attend dinner, look how cute and efficient Ellie is with those little red checks after each name plate was finished. She was so worried because she didn't know how to spell everyone's name and was insistent that I make a list for her to copy. 

A work in progress and lunch. My Dad gave us some Hillshire Farm stuff which my kids gobbled up for lunch like it was a Lunchable.

My name plate. This just melted my heart and was one of those moments that you go....I am so lucky to have children. (Can you see the aftermath of dinner in my kitchen behind...yikes) I was prepping food in the kitchen for dinner when I heard Aydan ask Ellie, "What are you going to make for Mom's?" Ellie breathlessly said, an angel..because Mom is an angel. It was one of those few times that you feel like sometimes, maybe you are doing things right. I love my little one eyed angel. 

A few more name plates, Aydan's is a "wreaf" as Ellie would say. We are working on those "th" endings. I thought Jared's was a sled or possibly a skateboard...however it all made sense when Ellie said, "It's baby Jesus." Can you see it now? I love that girl. 

I put Aydan to work at making a 7 layer dip

Sugar Cookie decorating station

It was a good night.