Sunday, January 4, 2009

countdown to christmas part IV

This year the UTC crowd went to Nolan's house for their first annual Christmas Party. The first year marked high standards with not only a cookie swap, but also an ornament exchange. Good luck to whoever host next year and has to follow that entertainment :) and seriously ya'll this decorating... Kristi has the decorating wisdom of a fifty-five year old. I am so serious! Look at how she tied, place and maneuvered the ribbon on her mantle. Gorgeous!

And this Christmas Tree...
and then all this silliness stepped in and took over all of Kristi's beautiful decor.
The whole clan minus Brent and Becca (missed you both).

All of the little bambinos: Emma (5 months), Ada (10 months), Nolan (4 months) and Owen (3 months).

I think Nolan is apalled that Emma jumped out of this shot.
Thank you Strait family for having all of us take over your house for an evening. The homemade manacotti was scruptious and all of the cookies from the swap did not even make it a week.

I love my grinch ornament. McKennas, I aplogize for the ghetto glowing snowman :)


My sister, Jennifer, normally hostesses a Happy Birthday Jesus party for our family, but she ended up having hers a little early with her own family so I was so thankful to Christy for inviting us to hers. Along with Ada and I came my mom, sister Suzi, nephew Roman and niece Peyton Carli.
We were also able to see Jennifer and Tucker! Yay!

Ada was not acting herself AT all! I kept thinking it was bc we were in the middle of her nap, but we skip her first nap fairly frequently and she usually is fine. We later found out what the deal-yo was.

I love the two Happy Birthday Jesus cakes that were made out of cupcakes.

It definitely made it easier when it came to dividing up the cake.

Tucker kept staring at my sister Suzi while she was holding him. He was thinking, "You look kinda like my mom, but you certainly don't sound like her." Suzi and Jennifer (ironically the same name as my other sister) remind me so much of each other. They have extremely similar personalities. That is why I love them both so much!


Jennifer and Tucker

Roman (3 years old) with a dab of icing


Peyton Cali (8 in Jan) about to dig in


Ada not being her sweet self, but still being pretty sweet.


Speaking of sweet. Jenna was there.


Seriously, almost to Christmas. Just a couple of days away...It is almost Jesus' real birthday. On the blog that is.

2 comments:

Becca said...

The variety of posts on the UTC party are so different - each time I feel like I get a little peek into what really went on! Looked like it was a blast. Maybe next year, it can be the "2nd Annual" hosted in Nashville at the Whitaker's...I'm sure I can't compete with Kristi's GORGEOUS decor...

Amy said...

I love the Happy Birthday, Jesus party! That is definitely a tradition I want to start with Anna Kate! It would be so fun!