whobody loved Christmaskidapalooza?

Okay....so Christmaskidapalooza is a TON of fun....an old tradition with a new name (looked better in email subject lines than 'kids christmas party'.  Every year around Christmas time we have a wonderful group of friends....and our kids' friends (bc they are kids of our friends ;) that we get together with.  I think that we started this tradition maybe 4 or 5 years ago....We all get together at our house for a Christmas party....we draw names for the kids to exchange gifts...we snack and eat pizza...the guys have a beer or two ;)....and the kids run rampant back and forth down the 'runway' that is the hallway between the bedrooms and our living area! This year and last year we REALLY lucked out and Santa even visited the party.

first...a picture of the chaos that is feeding the kids

 this actually went pretty well...as you can see almost all the kids fit around the table!

We DID have our party on the 23rd, so we really didn't expect to see Santa this year (because we figured he would be resting up for his big day). Boy, were we surpised when he walked in the door! Most of the kids were SO EXCITED to see him.....(but some, mostly the ones 2 and under, were a little scared....okay....so Nash was scared to death and kept saying "Bye Santa...Bye!" I guess he was hoping he could talk him into leaving.)  As you can see below....

Hayden was a little scared too.  But....everyone else was happy as could be to see Santa, sit on his lap and chat with him!

Lily

Colton

speaking of happy....you haven't seen happy until you have seen Keaton when Santa walks in a room. Wowza.  This is the grin from the time Santa walks in until the time he walks out... hilarious.

Cruz had his turn with Santa too...although it is blurry :(

Lola (yes, she picked out her own outfit....)

Keaton

Vaughn

Avery

We usually line them up on the couch...but the couch is getting too small...and I thought the tree would be a nice touch. (I do wish we had a couch picture though....just to compare to other years....that was 'my bad')

in order from oldest to youngest...keaton, lily, lola, vaughn, avery, parker, colton, alaina, nash, hayden, tyce, tate, cooper (being held by parker) cade, and cruz (being held by nash.... :/) 

and the kids getting ready to open their gifts! 

Between the 6 families there are 15 kids. Keaton is the oldest and Cruz is the youngest.  (What does that say about me? I don't know, but I think it might mean I am the crazy lady?) These kids all played SO well together that night....they just have a blast and really get along well.  Amazingly enough, while I sat on the couch and nursed Cruz, the moms went and picked up all 4 of the kids rooms at the end of the night and left them cleaner than when they came!  Gotta love that. (Thanks guys)

We adults also had lots of fun...our parties have changed a lot since we all started having kids, but the friends have stayed the same (now they just bring smaller coolers and more people!) We are very lucky to have such great friends that live so close by!

Merry Christmas....(still more Christmas posts to come!)