Christmas Eve, or, Santa Baby

The tradition of doing Santa in on Christmas Eve extends far back to my childhood. I'm pretty sure my mom didn't have "doing Santa in" in mind when she crafted the first Santa pinata, but as kids, we took it and ran with it. I made my very first Santa pinata this year, and I thought it turned out pretty cute, and not too far off the original model. The kids had fun wildly swinging the bat around.

Keith has devised this off the balcony method of moving the pinata.

Sareny gives a cute smile before she gets her game face on.

 We had a fun time bashing the pinata. In the evening, we headed over to our friend's the Jankowski's house for food and fun. We were supposed to bring an appetizer and a dessert. We brought poppyseed bread and baklava for dessert. I'm not sure why, but I was craving some baklava, so I found a recipe online and tried it out. It was so scrumptious!

For our appetizer, we brought bacon-wrapped lil smokies with brown sugar and liquid smoke. So good! I felt a little strange bringing this dish to my vegetarian friend's house, and the pecan and pistachio filled baklava when her little girl is allergic to tree nuts...We didn't take home any lil smokies, but everyone took a ton of dessert home with them. Which is why I ended up eating most of the baklava by myself over the next couple of days, and why I must never make baklava again. :( So sad.

Here is our cute little Santa Baby all dressed up and ready to go to the Christmas party!

I bought this dress for Sareny when she was a baby at Mervyn's, which of course no longer exists. Keeley looks so adorable in it!

We had a lot of fun at the Christmas Eve party. There were some fun trivia games with a prize for the winner, lots of good food, and fun people to hang out with. We tied for first at the trivia game, but the next round involved some physical challenges, and somehow we didn't win! Oh well, it was a lot of fun trying.

We had such a fun Christmas with our little family!