Can it really be only 9 sleeps until Christmas?!

This weekend we went to our annual playgroup Christmas party.

My friend Melissa hosts each year and it is always a fabulous success.

Her home is always beautifully decked for the holidays.

The past few years we have included the daddies which always makes it more fun!

As always, Santa makes a special stop at the party.

This year we took a group photo of Santa with the kids.

There were some tears…

a few escape artists…

but, we got *almost* all of the kids in the photo…without crying.

I think there are SEVEN kids missing from this photo…

and to think we started six years ago with one child each…

and they weren’t even crawling!

This last photo cracks me up beacuse the kids were told to raise their hand if they were good this year…notice the boy in the teal shirt (and his partner in playgroup crime) in the front row?! They are the ONLY kids NOT raising their hands!

She even had an adorable craft for the kids, but they were so busy playing that nobody did it…

Reece, however, knew there was a craft and wouldn’t leave until he had a chance to do it! So, we overstayed our welcome and did the craft. I love that my boy didn’t want to leave the party with out doing the craft!

We each bring something to eat and there is always plenty of food!

I neglected to get a good photo of my fruit plate garnish…a sprig of rosemary from our garden decorated with mini pom-poms and bakers twine! I was pretty happy with my last minute creativity!

I love this celebration every year.

home is…sharing traditions with friends.