Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always a special occasion for our family. Especially since my oldest niece Sariah was born on Christmas Eve 8 years ago. For the past couple of years we have headed to Powell to eat breakfast at McDonald's. The kids get to play and we get to eat. I think we're going to have to do something different from now on because Sariah is getting too tall to play their.

Here is a picture of Sariah and I on her birthday.

This is Sariah getting her hair done by Aunt Nicole for her baptism. She actually looks pretty happy considering just a few minutes before that she was screaming at me because I was puting in her earrings. (She had her ears pierced not too long ago and are still tender. She doesn't "really" cry very often, so we knew it was real.)

This is of Sariah and her dad Erik before heading to the church for her baptism.

After the baptism we headed over the the church gym for our annual Mayes' Family Christmas Eve Dinner. We have grown so big over the years that we can no longer meet at just one home. This year it seemed small because it was the "off" year for family to come home. Also, Richard's family had their own Christmas Eve at their house. (We missed them and the little ones.) One tradition that we have on Christmas Eve is to read the Christmas story and have the little ones dress up for it. I don't think they pay much attention, but they have fun.

Whitney came up to us and stated, "Look, I am a cute little angel." Her grandpa Klete laughed at that one. (I really like the red-ringed mouth from the punch. Matches her dress to a T.)

Here are the majority of the little ones. My mom got to tell the story this year. The kids generally listen to her better that some of the others.

We also had a Fish Pond for the children under 12 years old. This has been a tradition in the family since my great-grandpa's generation. Since some of the families are getting pretty darn big, I decided I would cover it this year and get small gifts for the children. It makes Aunt Shawnee all the more popular. We usually put up a sheet so the "fish" can hide behind it. My mom and brother Mike got to help on the other side. My mom said that the children's faces when they got their "fish" was one of pure joy. I wish I could have seen them. I did get a lot of hugs afterwards, though.