She's a Diesel Fitter.

For as long as I have been a part of Jon's family we have always celebrated on Christmas Eve.  No matter when everyone else planned a party, Jon was adamant that we always have dinner at his parents house on Christmas Eve.  So this year when my sister-in-law said her family was coming to town and we were going to switch things up, Jon's panties got in a bunch.

We decided to break tradition and instead of having dinner on Christmas Eve, we would have breakfast...and now that the day is over I would have to say that I very much liked the change!  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day anyway, but it was also nice to just sit around sipping orange juice mimosa's and watching the kids play with their gifts all laid back like, because they were well rested.

 
And the icing on my cake was the fact that overnight we had SNOW.  It is December 24th and we are finally getting a little snow for Christmas?  I was wishin' and hopin' and prayin' for some - just enough to make it pretty and this is what I saw when I looked out my basement window this morning.  Making my Christmas lights look all glowy and my heart all puffy.

Jon's dad made an awesome breakfast with all the extras, like blueberry muffin bread and hot cinnamon rolls.  Just like at Thanksgiving we got out all the nice china glasses for clinking (which Haylee is in love with doing) but then I was taken back to my childhood when they broke out the good plastic plates, just like mom used to for a holiday dinner.

We took some pictures of the kids by the tree before opening presents, they of course cooperated half-assed because SpongeBob Squarepants was on TV in the background and that is the only thing they were thinking about looking at.

And then the opening ensued.

Aunt Heather and Uncle Brian got Haylee this interactive cat which has totally freaked out everyone in the family.  It's like motion sensored and it will just turn it's head and look at you, raise it's paw to bat in your direction, meow...FREAKY, and I might lose the batteries out of it?

David nearly wet his pants every single gift he opened as if it were the number one on his list. Here he is literally screaming over a box of modeling clay.  But when it comes to his crafts, I guess Nonna knows him best.

This little punk on the other hand spent the rest of his morning getting himself into trouble with a Nerf gun.  Nobody should ever buy the naughty boy a gun because he's only going to get naughty'er with it.

I did however find it hard to believe that I actually caught a picture of a bullet mid-air!  What are the chances of that with a little point and shoot camera?

While the kids played the rest of us relaxed and made jokes....mostly about Jon's mother being a diesel fitter.  I swear every piece of clothing she buys for our kids is like one year ahead of where they are now (if we're lucky because sometimes it's two or three).  Walt says she just holds up something and says "oh yeah deeswillfitter" and throws it in the cart.   Today it was a pair of tights that went from the floor to Haylee's head.  Maybe next year on those?

The adults exchanged a few gifts, including this apron we got for Jon's dad with an inside joke embroidered across the front. 

By about noon the kids were ready to go back home and get a nap.  We had been up early, filled our bellies and played games so they were starting to turn cranky and plus Jon had lots of food to get prepped for Christmas Eve dinner.

Of course no visit at Nonna's would be complete without dancing.  She and Haylee did some booty shaking and some slow dancing....it's their favorite past time. 

Now I'm not sure about Jon but I'm thinking Christmas Eve breakfast could be a new tradition?