Christmas Eve in NJ

This year, we spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house in NJ. Past years, we had been spending this night with Joe's family, but since my parents hosted our extended family this year, we wanted to be there. I offered to host Joe's family the day after Christmas since we all had the day off from work.

We headed over to NJ early before the extended family got there to exchange presents with my parents. 

First thing's first: Nolan loves playing with pop pop's train under the tree! We have to get one for ours next year!

Always a crowd pleaser!

time to open the presents!

Both my kids love their pop pop so much!

Dress up clothes for Emmy!

A guitar for Nolan! Pop Pop needs to be his teacher!

The highly anticipated new Hess Truck! This has become a tradition and is the 3rd one we have for Nolan!

Emmy got my old "Dream Phone" and is obsessed!

We gave my parents a picture of the kids on a canvas

Showing Nonna the new calendar

Kids have inherited my love of Reeses :)

Love this picture! Emmy cracks me up everytime - she's making some hard deals on her new phone ;)

Silly girl!

 The family gathering was a lot of fun. We got to see some cousins we hadn't seen in a long time since some only come to Christmas get-togethers and we've missed them for many years. Emmy jumped right into the girl crew with cousins Sydney and Angelina. She loves keeping up with the big girls!

Caught another loving Nonna stare. This girl is certainly loved!

Someone partied a little too hard and needed a nap break during the get-together!

The anticipation was palpable getting ready to go home and sleep before Christmas! The kids were so excited to put on their new matching Jammies (we had matching for Joe, me, and Dean as well!) The kids were exhausted from a fun get-together and fell asleep on the way home!

1 more sleep til Christmas!