Our Christmas Eve Picnic

Clint's family has a tradition for their Christmas Eve dinner. Instead of doing a formal turkey/ham dinner around the table, they lay out blankets in their living room, cook a whole smorgas-board of barbecue food (hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, chips, etc), and all have a big family picnic in the living room. When Clint and I got married, we decided to carry on that tradition (at least for the Christmases that we have stayed home). We were still home for Christmas Eve this year, so we went forth with tradition. Every other time that we've had our picnic, we have had my little brother, Wes, join us, then stay over night for Christmas morning. Seeing as he is now a newlywed, he had other places to go, and he was missed.

Because we are only a family of four, and two of the four are midgets, we didn't lay out quite the spread that his family would have, but we still had some yummy food. Our menu consisted of: chicken sandwiches, little smokies, 7-layer bean dip, and chips with homemade guacamole. Mmmm-mmmm, good.

We were even lucky enough to have Santa and his favorite reindeer join us for the evening...

At some point in the evening, Tayson claimed that he was hot and "sweaty" (seriously, how hot and sweaty could you get in Utah in December?). So, he took off his shirt and kept it off until bedtime.

To keep our plates safe from Brennen Duncan, aka The Scavenger, we had to restrain him in his highchair, although we did move it to the floor so he could be a part of the picnic.

As you can see, the highchair does a terrific job of keeping him restrained...

The faces of satisfaction: