Christmas Eve 2008

Grandma arrived just in time to attend the Christmas Eve service with us at Joe & Ab's church. Baby Bella was mentioned in the message, which was clearly fitting as it was her first outing. We sat in the back to allow for quick escapes. Elijah's hair was sticking up everywhere. He was really into practicing blowing out the candles.
We sat together, as tired Tooskini's tend to need their Mommas. Momma also showed Elijah the wonders of a water fountain for the first time. I help my 30 lb child up above my ever-expanding belly so he could have "Moor! Moor!" of the water hit his face. He thought it was hysterical. Eric left the service to tell us to quite down. Grandma said we weren't that distracting. And it was really entertaining.
Baby Bella even had a fancy new dress to wear. Her dear Aunt Lydia found some appropriate 0-6 months tights for her to wear. Bella was not quite up to filling out either the dress or the tights...although we feel that will soon change (check out this chin!).
Sweet little baby girl!
That night we had a hodge-podge dinner. Everyone got to pick a favorite food from the grocery store. We had soft pretzels (mmmm!), double stuff Oreos, Queso dip, and...well, the last thing was so disgusting I find it hard to mention.
Elijah hung out with "JOE!JOE!JOE!" on Christmas Eve. Look how nice Joe is - even holding the milk cup.
We attempted a photo shoot with everyone in their Christmas pajamas (thanks Connie!). This is just after Elijah tried to hit Bella on the head. This picture is hilarious (although my child's behavior problems are certainly not).

Yay! Finally one with everyone looking; well, everyone except Bella - but she's a baby.
And Joe really tore up a LOT of Lit'l Smokies. Eric and I were grossed out, but strangely amused by the nastiness of the dish. The recipe includes Lit'l Smokies (yes, that is the proper spelling. See Joe for pronunciation.), grape jelly, and chili sauce. Chili sauce is a real thing. There are actually several different varieties at WalMart, none of which I would ever recommend trying.