The Eve of Christmas

I promise, I'm almost done talking about Christmas for the year.  But the discussion would not be complete without the Lowe Down on how we spent Christmas Eve.  We got up and had french toast (my mama's french toast is hands down my favorite breakfast, and that's saying something from a girl who likes donuts as much as I do).  Then we showered and headed over to the Lowes' for our Christmas Eve there.  Ryan's sister Jessica, her husband Dawson, and her son Rafe were all there.  We don't get to see them often, so it was really great to have everyone together.  Uncle Ryan loved getting to hang out with a boy for a little bit.

We also got to give Alli a little taste of siblinghood.  She opened her presents (Cake Pop maker & Ninja Turtle jammies from her aunt & uncle and 11" Ninja Turtles & a Pillow Pet Dream Lite from her Granny and Grandpa) and Rafe immediately was interested in the Turtles.  In typical boy fashion, he smashed them together repeatedly, and in typical Alli fashion, she was very anxious about sharing and about him damaging them.  In fact, after the fourth or fifth smashing, she brought them up to me and asked me to put them in the car!  She might have a rough few years ahead of her with a little one getting into her precious stuff!

Afterwards, we went to the Ferndale Community Center to have Christmas Eve dinner with the bigger group - Ryan's dad is the oldest of eight, and around six of them, plus their kids and their kids' kids get together for dinner, presents, and fellowship.  I was having some lower back pain so we didn't stay as long as we otherwise would have, but we did stay long enough for a visit from Santa.

Then we headed over to my Nini's house for what we like to call Jingle Holloway, our annual Christmas Eve dinner and singalong.  My aunt, uncle, and three cousins came up for Christmas this year, so there were more people than usual.  We had delicious food, the awarding of the Johnson Family Fantasy Football Champion (none other than Mr. Lowe Down himself!) followed by gathering around the piano to sing our favorite Christmas carols.  My cousins and uncle are fantastic singers, so the level of harmony was definitely brought up several notches.  It was a wonderful celebration, and it was so special to be around our whole family this year.