Happy Birthday, Jesus!

We joined the Grangers and the Helfers for our second annual Christmas dinner and birthday party for Jesus!

The get-together almost didn’t happen, as all three families had packed schedules, but we found the one 3-hour period that everyone was free and made it happen.

While last year we went with a mexican theme, we were shooting for Italian this year. And after some travel complications, we went with super simple Italian and ordered pizza!

The kids loved it, although they spent more of their dinner laughing and being goofy than they did eating.  Watson tried to get in on the action, but the girls wouldn’t let him.     I’m not so sure if James was highly entertained or very annoyed with the silliness of the girls!     After dinner, we opened gifts.

Among other things, James opened a fun helicopter… Emory got dress-up accessories… and Callie opened a playdoh set, which Emory definitely didn’t see, because I would have heard that she wanted it all night!  The gifts continued and the big kids began opening a few and {surprisingly} sharing them with each other.   James’ helicopter was a big hit!      Then it was time for cake! We assembled the nativity on top of the cake and lit the candles {2 since this is our second gathering} and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Jesus. We tried hard for a picture of all the kids before they dug into the cake, but that plan didn’t exactly work.    James most definitely enjoyed his little taste of cake! It’s so funny that last year we knew for sure that we’d be adding little James to the mix this year, but I can’t believe we’ve added Chloe and Boland {my chunky monkey…look at that double chin!} as well! We went from three kiddos last year to SIX this year! It will be interesting to see what the count is in 2011, although I am very positive the Duprees won’t be adding any to the party next year!

Thanks Grangers and Helfers for the fun tradition!