Christmas Eve

Our Christmas festivities started Christmas Eve with lunch at our house with my mom's side of the family.

We had the traditional ham and turkey (from Honey Baked Ham) along with a plethora of casseroles and muscadine pie for dessert (my aunt's specialty).

After lunch we all gathered in the den to open presents

Aubrey opening her first present with her
signature wide-eyed expression
Intently studying her new toy

Luke opening his tool box

Ryan and I received this cup and Starbucks gift card
from my aunt and uncle

At first glance this little 'ole cup doesn't seem like much, but it quickly became our MOST FAVORITE Christmas present!

What makes this cup so amazing you ask?

Well, it has 3 very unique characteristics:

1) No Sweat
the cup is made of double-wall plastic which means it will NEVER sweat...no more wet hands after picking up your cold drink and no more puddles of water left on the surface your cup was placed on!

2) Keeps cold drinks ICE COLD
Ryan took his cup to work Monday morning and called me Monday afternoon to tell me that not only was his coke still cold, but every ice cube was still in tact!

3) Dishwasher safe
You would think that with a cup so technologically advanced that it would require "hand washing only", but nope, all parts are dishwasher safe!

However, if your wife hasn't run the dishwasher yet and you NEED your cup, you just might have to hand wash it...this may or may not have happened to Ryan this morning :)

For those of you who don't know Ryan that well, it takes a lot to really get him excited, so when he came home from work Monday and told me that we didn't ever need another kind of cup besides these, I knew they MUST be something fantastic!

After some internet research I found out that this Starbucks cup is very similar to a Tervis Tumbler.

By the way, I was not paid by anyone to advertise for their product, we really do love the cups!

Now, back to Christmas...

Christmas Eve night we went to my aunt and uncle's house to celebrate with my dad's side of the family.

My dad is Italian, so we have a very nontraditional Christmas meal: Lasagna, Italian salad, rolls, and you can't forget the black olives (you can't be an Alfano
if you don't love black olives)!

When our bellies were full, we anxiously awaited a visit from Santa and the adult's dirty santa game.

Aubrey with my Nana, her great grandmother

I was prepared for Luke to react the same way he did about a month ago when he saw Santa for the first time this year.

Much to our surprise, when Santa entered the room,
Luke smiled, pointed and exclaimed, "Santa!".
He even let Santa give him a hug!
Aubrey wasn't too sure about Santa this time,
she really had to check him out...

She grabbed his beard to make sure it was real
And checked to make sure Santa didn't have
anything "up his sleeve"

When Santa left it was time for the big kids to have some fun with the dirty santa present exchange.

Ty, my sister Kathleen's boyfriend, (he also lives at
Santa's Workshop) received the "dirtiest" santa gift
In case you can't tell from the picture, that's red jello sprinkled with cat food. At least there was $20 buried in the bottom (sealed in a plastic bag), if he was brave enough to dig into the cat food jello.

Kathleen didn't do much better
She received pink bunny, footed pajamas
(like on A Christmas Story).

Ryan and I didn't do too bad, he got an Auburn Snuggie and originally I opened a gift with $20 inside.

My sister, Anna, got a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts along with a Krispy Kreme gift card and since there isn't a Kripy Kreme in Auburn (where she lives), and she knows how much we LOVE our Krispy Kreme, she was gracious enough to
trade gifts with me!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve...
stay tuned for our Christmas Day post!