Smith Festivus 2013

I love Christmas Eve with my family. It's loud, crazy, obnoxious, too packed with activities, and I love it! Here are the usual festivities:

- Canaya's Birthday party where we eat an amazing Filipino feast cooked by Adina

- Viewing of the family Christmas music video which I had the privilege of editing this year. We've been forbidden to publish some of them online, but this one's relatively tame:

- Christmas Elvises leave our new jammies at the door during a round of "minister's cat". A stampede of screaming children ensues.

can you tell the babies woke me at 4 am?

- Never ending "talent" show. After every number, my mom asks "Does anyone else have something?" and a child between the ages of 3 and 10 will undoubtedly raise their hand and share their something (usually made up on the spot). Rinse and repeat.

- Adult white elephant. There were a lot of winners this year, but I really hit the jackpot with a replica of Amy's "World's Greatest Mom" night shirt.