Lee family Christmas

We played host to this year's "Lee Family" Christmas celebration.  As you may recall we got out of all hosting responsibilities last year as I was very pregnant with Macy and was actually on bed-rest this time last season.  So, I suppose it was our turn  :-)

 It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!  The presents (and people) have arrived

 I slaved in the kitchen all day.  No joke...I was on my feet most of the day prepping, slicing, dicing, cooking, baking and broiling today's meal!  As you can imagine, I don't spend too much time in the kitchen, so I enjoyed this nice "change of scenery".

 I prepared an Italian themed dinner.  Complete with Spaghetti, Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, my Chicken, mushroom, artichoke, tomato and pesto pasta dish, garlic bread, cheesy garlic bread, salad and stuffed portabella mushrooms, etc...my mom brought a huge tray of homemade cookies!  yum!  And I'm glad that we had leftovers, so we'll be eating pasta for sometime to come.  :-)

 some intense conversation.

 Not sure what dad was saying here, but Erika looks very intrigued.  And check out Ally & Anna's spirited conversation  :-)

 Heather, you're crazy  :-)  whoa, watch out for Great Grandma!

check out Macy just chilling all by her lonesome to the far left...she is SUCH a good baby and totally loves entertaining herself.

These homemade Christmas dresses of McKenzie and Macy inspired us to search for the dresses mom made for us LONG LONG ago.  My mom was not much of a sewer and was certainly not much of a saver, so the fact that she held onto these adorable dresses all these years was kind of special.

This photo below was taken in 1981, I was about 1 & 1/2 years old!  We of course thought it would be fun to try and replicate this photo with our own little girls.  

Lisa, Heather, Keri & MEEE

So here we go...30 years later...Anna (Keri's daughter), Ally (Lisa's daughter), Danielle (Heather's daughter) and Macy (my daughter of course)...as you can see Macy was not too thrilled about the impromptu photoshoot.  She was hungry and wanted to start opening presents!

 How funny and coincidental that 30 years later, these dresses would fit our girls perfectly!  Erika, McKenzie & the boys were bummed that they did not have a dress that fit them (or probably not so much - hehe)

 Mom let us each keep our own dress.  I will treasure it forever.

 oh Ally, what a little HAM!

 Beautiful Danielle models her dress.

 And now it's Anna's turn  :-)

 Macy & Ally pose by the fireplace

 okie, dokie, let's get this party started.  And so the craziness of gift opening begins!

 This is all McKenzie has been asking for this year...she was so excited that she was shaking when she saw that it was a...

 "Cowgirl Jessie" doll!

 We decided to go ahead and keep the girls in their 30-year-old/new dresses for a little bit longer.

 Macy had fun and did a pretty good job crinking up the paper.

 Atta girl!

Toby (one tired pup), Danielle and her daddy, Chad.

As a gift for all of us girls, my dad wrapped and gave each of us a place setting from his mother's China collection. 

 They are beautiful and I will proudly display it in my family room forever and always.  Thanks Dad for the thoughtful and very touching family heirloom.  I will think of Grandma & Grandpa Lee every day that I see them  :-)

That night, while most of the kid were down stairs trashing the basement (oh well, big deal, they were out of our hair, nothing was broke and no one was hurt - hehe)...us adults played a fierce game of Catch-Phrase.  Boys vs. Girls.  I'll let you guess who won...and seven hours later the party was over.

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We are looking forward to playing host to all the Harnisches this Saturday!  Should be JUST as much fun.  :-)

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Last night, me, Joe and the girls drove to neighboring town Bennington for a fundraiser spaghetti feed dinner at the high school, benefiting sweet Nora.  Nora is the 2 year old daughter of friends, who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia.  She is doing well, is in remission, but has a long & challenging road to go.  The community came out in droves to show support to this amazing young family of five.  It was so nice and heartwarming to see such a huge crowd.  I hope the money raised will help alleviate some of the financial stresses that come along with a diagnosis such as this.  A burden, that is not fair for anyone to have to go through, especially those caring for their loved ones in their time of need.