On Christmas Eve we attended the family service at church, where Camden was one of three shepherds. He took his job very seriously, telling all three sheep (rather than just his own) to "sit down" during the reading. I volunteered Grace for the Christmas story as well, not realizing she was going to be the only "kid" over the age of 6. She was the "lead" angel, which realy just meant she was to lead 4 much littler angels up to the front and back. She was NOT happy with me AT ALL, but she was good enough to go through with it just the same. Sorry Grace! I'll know better next year!
After the service we went over to Grama Vera's for the annual Christmas Eve extravaganza. This is the one event that everyone in the Jensen family tries to make it to each year, and ends up being 30 to 40 people when it's all said and done. Traditionally we have oyster stew, which in the 'old days' consisted of luke warm milk with some oysters thrown in, but the past few years my dad has taken over the making of it and I hear it is actually quite good now. (Not that I care to try it). Here is my dad with Chris (3 shots and Dad's eyes are closed in all of them!):
And my Grama with my Uncle Chic:
And Santa came (It's Santa! I KNOW him!):
Finally, a picture of all of my girl cousins (except Aylie), and daughters of girl cousins (except Tula, who I think was sleeping at this point):
Christmas Eve always ends up being a late night...which doesn't do well for small children or their pregnant mommies, come Christmas morning, but we managed to get home and be in bed by 10:00...so that was quite an accomplishment!
Christmas morning Camden came in our room at 3:45am, only to be told it was not quite time to get up yet. 7:00 is the preferred time for getting up on Christmas, and when that time came we discovered that Santa had brought Rock Band 2 for Chris, er, I mean the kids. Grace got her much longed for iPod Touch and Camden got a bunch of smaller gifts, including a game for his new Nintendo DS that Mimi and Papa gave him. Everybody was happy!
We always host Christmas brunch at our house for my dad, my siblings, and my Uncle Chic. This was our first Christmas without Nana which was hard on the kids in particular. I realized halfway through brunch that we were missing the fruit platter with that marshmallow dip...which is what Nana always brought!
My dad and Jeanne with the kids:
Our second Christmas without Pete.
This is Lars, Clare, my dad and me:
The kids with their new toys after brunch:
After we cleaned up brunch and rested our eyes for a bit we went to my mom's for Christmas dinner. It was delicious. Jim cooked a prime rib, Chris grilled the salmon, and Sean made some scrumptious gnocci. The chefs:
My mom was thrilled to have all of us together:
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