The Harper Pages: Christmas Eve Party

Every year on Christmas Eve family gathers together at my brother's house to celebrate. This year, it was my family, my parents, two of my brothers and some of their children, Doug's parents, his brother and family. We each bring a favorite Mexican dish. This year we ate Taco Salads, Beef Tamales, Beef Taco Bake and Cheese Enchiladas. Everything was yummy! After eating and visiting, we participated in our Christmas Eve Gift Exchange. This is a tradition in my family from before I was even born. My family has always gathered together on Christmas Eve to open one gift. Everyone attending brings a gift under $5. We all draw numbers. This year, there were 25 of us participating. Each person gets to choose a gift or steal a gift that has already been opened. Some years there is a lot of stealing that takes place, and some years very little. This year was a pretty tame year for stealing. After all the gifts are open, various members of the family participate in a play depicting the first Christmas. It's fun to watch this. Usually the kids are the ones in the play, but sometimes there just aren't enough kids and adults are asked to join. The thing that makes it fun - nobody knows who or what part they will play until that evening. So, the audience gets a treat watching the reactions of those in the play. One of my favorite memories was when my nephew Parker played the donkey. He had a great time hee-hawing onto the "stage". He's a good sport like that. I, of course, have a great time snapping pictures like mad to capture as much of the evening as possible. These pictures tend to show up years later for a good laugh. I will have to dig through my archives to see if I can find that donkey again! This year, Doug took over the camera for a bit which is fun - it's always fun to see what other people like to take pictures of - he did a pretty good job with the camera. My favorite photo from the evening was shot by Doug. I hope you enjoy the pics!!!

Patti & Chandler at the beginning of the evening:

Look at all those gifts! And to think this tradition started with my parents and their children. At most, we would have 7 gifts to choose from (and almost always there were chocolate covered cherries and Life Saver Books - and we would steal, steal, steal to get those two items!!!)

My father-in-law opening his gift. It eventually got stolen and he got to open a new one:

Okay, this is pretty funny. Scott, my nephew, brought this football for the gift exchange and then choose his own gift. He did get to bring it home. Wouldn't it have just been easier to buy it for yourself, not buy it, wrap it, unwrap it and then get to play with it?

My mom got a Halloween mug for Christmas. Pretty funny. Patti & I are Halloween crazy. We absolutely love that holiday and yet neither one of us stole this mug from my mom.

My oldest brother, Bill and his wife Angela enjoying the evening. They just moved here this year. It's been fun enjoying them and their two youngest children that live here now.

Slim pickin's on the gifts. Warren was one of the last to pick from the pile.

Slinkies are as much fun today as they were when I was a kid! My neice Hayden got this as her first pick and was so afraid that somebody was going to steal it. You know what they say - fun for a girl and a boy!

I really like this picture. My neice Annie dressed up as a wiseman getting ready for the Christmas Eve production! She was just in a wonderful one-act play at her school based on one of my favorite Christmas stories - The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Me and my parents patiently waiting for the Christmas play to begin.

Ryan got to play Samual. He was the prophet that foretold the birth of Christ and has stones thrown at him - only they couldn't hit him.

This is my favorite picture from the evening. We were all given wadded up wrapping paper to use as stones to throw at Samual. Look at my dad, he is enjoying throwing "stones" at his grandson a little too much! He is actually the only one that hit Ryan with the paper.