Kids Christmas party

Last year Tate and friends had a fancy Christmas dinner party, so we thought we'd keep up the tradition and host one this year. 

 

Macy asked me to make enchiladas- and the joke all night that we'd be serving "white girl enchiladas" to Sebastian and Harper- who are both hispanic and know authentic enchiladas! Also threw in hot apple cider-

And Brian created this cute Christmas tree appetizer-

The idea was for everyone to get dressed up a tad, but teenagers will do what teenagers want-

Brian and I sat outside and had a fire during dinner and could hear the kids laughter, so I wanted to capture a candid shot looking in on all the happiness- 

When dinner was done, they had a secret Santa gift exchange (Tate gave a Juneteenth hat and received a biography about Helen Keller- love these kids!) and then they headed across the street to Ethan's house where his parents did cookie decorating and a hot cocoa bar- 

Macy's cookies- 

Tate's cookie and it's inspiration- 

When we heard the kids leave, Brian got into his Santa suit and headed over to surprise the kids- 

It was really fun, and our kids tolerated it well! 

Rich, Kai-lin, Santa and me-

Santa left and shortly thereafter, we heard someone in the backyard yelling "Santa? Santa?" And then through the screen door appeared Buddy the Elf yelling in "Is Santa still here?"

The kids all about died! It was amazing to hear them all roar with laughter. And then just like that, Buddy the Elf disappeared. 

(Brian did have to walk by a few elementary kids who were out playing!)

When we got back, I noticed the diningroom-

What the heck? It was like poof, the kids had just disappeared too! But when they came back from Ethan's, they cleaned it all up and played board games until almost 1am. Meanwhile, it was our annual Love Actually date night-

We don't have a TV in our room, so Brian hooked up the projector and we watched from bed while we enjoyed wine and snacks and occasionally heard the roar of happy teenage laugher from downstairs. I LOVE falling asleep to those noises and will always say yes to hosting because it feels like such a gift to hear them.