26 Adults + 20 kids + 7lbs of Pasta = One Wild and Crazy Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve 2008 - The Year the Pepe 6 had their turn. The "Eve" is always a big event for so many people but for Steve's family it's particularly huge. Every year someone has to host and finally after 10 years of waiting WE finally had our turn. Buying the house big enough to fit everyone helped a little. So needless to say I/We were VERY VERY excited for this year! It's the 1 time a year the everyone gets together and gets along :). Everyone brings a dish. Steve's Mom makes the fish sauce (and left my white kitchen spotless). There's the Antipasta (thanks Aunt Ro) and the bread (thanks Uncle Tony) oh and the seafood salad (thanks Aunt Marie but Steve is still mad he didn't get any and there was none leftover in our fridge come morning. I tried to explain Santa ate it but he's not buying it) Christine's sauce and meatballs fed the kids and us for the next 2 days!!! The desserts were scrumptous but the Tirimasu was AWESOME!!! (thanks Danielle) The wine flowed all night and the children danced with delight. Sorry I couldn't resist that last line.....lol

OK OK I know you want pictures as usual....you know your very demanding!

This was us trying to get a family picture before the chaos but as you can tell we create our own just fine. In the final one I accidentally saved it as a black and white. As you can see it takes lots of shots to get the right one. Here Sophia is trying her hardest to keep the pretzel in the picture



That's a nice one with the grandparents!


Elfie was on a mission the night before and he hung all of these snowflakes in our foyer. He's such a good Elf!


The table!!!!! Really it's tables seeing how I had to add an additional 6ft table to my dinning room table so that I could seat the adults.



The festivities have begun....



A little cousin-ly love



The kids got fed...



So that the adults could get fed



Trying to get 20 kids to all look at the camera and smile nice while surrounded by tons of presents is damn near impossible so this is the best I got:



They sat nice for 2 seconds so we had to give them their gifts...




Since Sophia is still little and would have gotten stepped on she needed to stay near by the benefit of that is she is the only one that got pictures with some of her gifts. Auntie Amy got her all Personalized Frog stuff. She loved it!!!



Aunt Rosalie made her the most adorable Frog Hat! Seriously I think I want one. She loved it and hasn't taken it off yet!



In this picture we have Uncle Robb reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"and the kids actually all sat and listened and enjoyed!



Meet Tommy -Steve's cousin. He did some electrical work for us....not very good I might add. He felt the job he did warranted a new Porsche. Half way through the night there was a knock on the door and to my delight I saw the brand new Porsche delivered that we ordered for Tommy.

He loves it and the fact that it is so compact makes it great for fitting in those small spaces at the mall!




As usual not enough pictures were taken. I guess that means that too much fun was being had by all to remember to pick up the camera. Luckily MaryAnne grab me to catch this moment. This was probably my best of the night. Here is Steve with all the kids in his office tracking Santa (Thanks Stef for the reminder of Norad)

A day in the city

Every year at Christmas time Steve takes the kids to the office with him to spend the day and then I come in later with the leftover children that didn't make the cut. He almost took all 4 in with him at the crack of dawn. Maybe next year. Luckily it wasn't terribly cold.

We always get a picture with the red balls. This was Steve's old office and he always spoke so highly of the red balls. You would think that he was in charge of the big red balls and set them up himself every year. So there was really no need for this explanation I just wanted to see how many times I could say red balls...lol


If you look closely you will see Sophia's expression and she is not to thrilled with these guys and has a death grip on Steve not to get any closer.



Just an innocent bystander:


May the force be with you....


Finally, only in New York City can you find Elmo on the street....oh and he was begging for money. That mean ole' Big Bird threw him out on his butt

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Another year wiser, older, bolder and just plain ole' crazy! I turned 33 this week! Holy crap 33 I swear I was just 23 yesterday. I liked that year. I was planning my wedding and working a job I got paid for with real money and I was in demand for real adult things. Now the only thing I am in demand for is a filled sippy cup a changed diaper and a well stocked pantry to fill the bottomless bellies of these children that seem to come at me from every direction at once. This is where I should say that crap about not wanting it any other way and blah blah blah but one less cheerio to head a day would be nice.

Steve arranged for a little get together last night to celebrate. I am sure the ton of guilt he has for not being here for my birthday helped. Then again he did make me buy my own cake yesterday....I know can you believe it! I should say he gave me beautiful earrings that have just the right amount of sparkle but he did give me a Christmas card for my birthday instead of a birthday card. I assume I will get the birthday card for Christmas. YES should give your spouse a Christmas card! Jesssh what is this world coming too!

OK pictures cause I know your waiting.....





Me and the grandparents!





Me, Jamie and Rob (my sister and brother-in-law)




Me and Debbie (sister-in-law) and my niece Megan




Bella and Tuna-Pa (this is my grandpa that my kids call Tuna-pa because he always makes them tuna fish when they visit so Sam had called him that when she was younger and it stuck)




Me with Lori and Frankie (sister and brother-in-law) They had been in the car and I forgot to get a picture so I made them come back in an Lori wanted to keep her hat on so I ran an put mine on so we could be matchy matchy - you know how I love to match! Her hat is cooler but mine is furrier and HOT Pink :) It's the simple things that make me happy!





Me and Virginia, Louis, Frank, Ryan and Vincent. (sister & brother-in-law and my nephews) She was the only one to think to take the picture in front of my pretty tree instead of my fridge!
CHIN DOWN!


OK here is something as rare as seeing a penguin in the desert. I totally just came up with that. Here is me with MY brother and sister.....a sight not soon seen again for at least another decade!

Bella all dressed up with only school to go...

Bella was all excited to wear this outfit to school. She wanted me to take pictures. So we did :


As I am telling her to smile the "crazy one" hears me and she comes running like a bull in a china shop to be included you only see her curl here because I am trying to hold her off....




I had no success. I am scared of her:


OK OK she can sweet when she's working the room and she is so schmoozing both me and Bella here - don't let that smile fool you!

Breakfast with Santa

We had breakfast with Santa this past Sunday. It is an annual tradition and we have been going for the past.....few years. I can't remember how many. So here we are with Santa:


They have this sled set up every year and we try to get some kind of picture with it.


Here is the yearly stair picture. We usually take this at my in-laws house every year at Thanksgiving but since we were not all there at the same time we had to take the picture elsewhere. This worked:



Favorite part of the day! So if you see a few posts below you will see Sophia is not to excited over Santa so for kicks we introduced her to Rudolph

Here she is thinking "Whoa what the heck is this should I touch it"




NO NO NO changed my mind - don't touch me!



Now Rudolph is upset he upset Sophia and Sophia for a brief moment appreciates the concern



and then all hell breaks loose and Sophia has to get out of here NOW.....




Classic - I so can't wait to share these with them when they get older

Oh my CUTENESS!!!

I need teachers gifts and am so tired of the same ole same ole.... The short man has 8 teachers, Samantha has 3, Bella has 4, add in 2 dance instructors, 1 fabulous speech teacher and say 6 more that I am not thinking of at this moment. Anyway, that is a lot of teachers. While shopping today for some last minute Christmas gifts I spotted these cakes made out of DISHTOWELS! Do you believe it. There was cakes, cupcakes and shakes, oh my! Of course I had to duplicate....







Would you like a slice of cheescake - it is totally fatfree!!

Pictures with Santa!

Took the kids to see Santa. Sophia was beyond excited - Can't you tell?!?!


Oh and don't be concerned with Bella - she was discussing her day of problems starting with Sam stealing her makeup and then Sophia ate her lip gloss. She was sulking. Let the teen years being -whoopeeeeee!