i promised to "ketchup"! (part deux)

on christmas eve, we thought it would be more fun (and feel more like christmas) to have some friends over for christmas eve dinner. the preparations took most of the day, but it turned out really nice! alan and our friend matt went to the church early and "borrowed" a large table and chairs. with kids, there were 14 of us!

here is the dining room....

kids were in the kitchen....not pictured is the "littlest table" for the two youngest ones. it was in the kitchen too. we could kind of keep an eye on them, but they definitely had their own party going on!
check out the food! yum!
after dinner, liz brought chimes -- a family christmas eve tradition -- and charts of christmas songs and plenty of spoons to chime with. it was a lot of fun and the timing on the songs was pretty funny, since we each had one (or two) chimes to be responsible for -- of course, the kids insisted on doing it themselves, making for some over-long pauses filled with whispered cues when their chime came up. this is liz, joshua, xander, and mason.

everyone concentrating: dan, josh, amanda, and joshua again. i think i did manage to get a photo of everyone, but i'll spare you...they are all more of the same. :)