Christmas Eve in Longwood

Christmas Eve was our big dinner- yum! Lots of time was put in to prepare this delicious meal. Elizabeth and Tom's house is not huge, but with family it's ok. We set up some adults in the dining room, a few more in the breakfast nook and the kids out on the patio. See, you can do that when its 75 degrees after sundown! We all enjoyed the scrumptious food and the excellent company!

What's in your Popper?

After dinner was over, we all rolled onto the couches and chairs to relax and settle before we started the next activity!

Porter and his chocolate in the massage chair

Nigel and Joe - how handsome!

Sisters (& Maisyn!)

Terri & Brian, sorry, no privacy on this trip!

Elizabeth and Dad - I love this picture.

Elizabeth, Dad and Maisyn - I love this one, too!

Nigel

Joe

Terri, Elizabeth, Dad and me sharing a smile!

Maisyn's photography :

PoPo in front of the stockings hung by the fire and...

my cute sister and her family in front of the stockings hung by the fire.

We decided to go on a walk around a lake (and I wish I could remember the name!) where they have an entire lighted display to see. There were families walking everywhere, it was a perfect evening to get out and enjoy the spirit of Christmas together. Andy decided to head out with some friends for the evening and Oma went back home for the night, but the rest of us enjoyed the trek.

All the cousins minus Andy.

The whole clan in front of the huge lighted train car

The family checking out some crazy wildlife!
The duck was reminscent of the "Disney Duck Invasion" of the day before.
Do you see that under the water!? There were a bunch and I swear they were the size of small sharks! Wierd.

Sea turtles in the lake

An owl or another animatronic....

The sisters: Terri, Cassie, Elizabeth

Yes. Shorts, tshirts, and Christmas Eve do go together!

The Jensen's (& Joe)

The cousins:Payton, Sydney, Riley, Josh, Porter, Abby, & Maisyn (missing: Paxon and Andy)

Joe, Dad and Nigel

As we finished the walk we got a picture of each of the kids by themselves, too. The weather was warm, the kids played in the fountain, and we got the Parks Ranger to take a group pic, as well. There isn't anything like Christmas-time in a tropical place!

It wasn't quite bedtime but when everyone was getting into pj's, Porter and Paxon found themselves in this picture-perfect place. How sweet! Cousins ready for Santa!

By the end of the evening we were all relaxing at home, anxious for Christmas morning to come. When what did Larry hear on the roof? Footsteps- it had to be the big guy! So everyone rushed up the stairs to have a peak out the window. And, yes, it was Santa Claus! The real thing! You can even ask the girls- they will tell you the whole story in their own words! We were all quite excited to see him on the roof with his big bag of goodies for us all. Maisyn walked stone-faced back down the steps very quickly and quietly. She told the adults sitting below, "I'm used to the men in the ward pretending to be Santa, but this is really him." She just calmly went into her room to get to sleep - pronto! All the kids decided that they better get to sleep since he can't actually leave the presents while they were awake. So that was the end of that- what a memory!