Christmas in Nashville (Part Two) - Christmas Eve

We got to meet Baby Lilah on Christmas Eve morning!  My cousin Leah came over and spent the morning with us and we loved getting to catch up with her and love on Baby Lilah!

     Me & sweet Lilah

 Bella loved holding her and kissing her!

That night we had a delicious dinner at my mom's.....pasta, meatballs, sausage, breads, the best salad ever....ahhhhh, yumm!  There's nothing I love more than my mom's italian cooking!  But before we ate and got all dirty, we made the kids sit for more pictures! :-)

                  Carter, Bella and Will

                     My mom and my kids

                            Our family!

  My mom and all 4 grandkids......it's impossible to get them to all look at the right camera! :-)

                     Me and 3 sisters and mom

             We literally have to take turns standing on the ends because we all hate it.....so every picture we take together we have to take twice....you think I'm kidding, but I'm not!!!

      Dinner table - I LOVE that my mom's table can seat 18 people!

                Zia and Blake

                   Isabella and Jessies


Then after dinner we started opening presents.  Because Natalie, Nadine and I have inlaws that we celebrate with on Christmas Day we open all the kids gifts from their aunt's and uncles and my mom, then we all have a secret Santa gift  and then we open our gifts from my mom.  

             Bakugans and fishing poles

                About to open Zhu Zhu pet homes

     Lightsabers!

                        Uncle Mark always makes us laugh!

                Polly Pocket!

       Transformer Helmets

    

              My mom thinks its a good idea for some reason to give the son in laws marshmallow guns....are you kidding???

                My sister, Nikki, had a very sweet gift for us all!    Before my dad died he told our Uncle Andrew to tell us girls that the only thing he cared about and wanted from us was to promise to "meet him there" ....in heaven.  The closest translation in Italian was Finche C'Incontreremo  which translates "til we meet again".  Well, Nikki found a jewelrymaker who made us each a necklace with an original design and they all say this phrase.  This is one of the most special gifts I've ever received and I absolutely LOVE it!  

We were almost done opening gifts and somebody looked out the window and it had starting snowing!! My mom and the kids ran outside in the freezing cold to catch snowflakes on their tongues! :-)

Finally, we put our cookies out for Santa and got the kids in bed.......ready to celebrate more the next morning!