'Twas the Night before Christmas

Keeping with tradition, we spent Christmas Eve in Belmont with the Ranere family... this year was bittersweet as we celebrated our 30th year at 315 Prospect Street. With Grammy and Papa's move to Plymouth coming up in March, it was our last big holiday in the house. As we celebrated, we remembered all of the great Christmases spent in this house with family and friends, and we toasted all of the memories we have been blessed to share with each other...

It wouldn't be a Ranere Christmas Eve without Christmas carols, and this year, even Finley and Owen joined the Ranucci choir... we all gathered in the study, Grammy played away, and we belted out another year's worth of horribly off-key, out of tune carols while laughing all the way...

Then Owen and Finley decided to join Grammy on the piano...

After ending the carols with a rousing rendition of 12 Days of Christmas, we decided it was time for the kiddos to head to bed... Katy gave Finley and Owen matching flannel pajamas, and soon after 9:00, we tucked them in. Here they are giving Grammy and Papa hugs before heading off to bed...

After the kids were asleep, we all sat down for a delicious meal with baked stuffed lobsters, tenderloin and lasagna... and in a new tradition this year, we sang Christmas carols 'round the dining room table by the light of the Blackberry.... Stevie, having googled the lyrics to a Masshole favorite, "12 Pains of Christmas", passed along his Blackberry and we all took turns singing the 12 verses (or more accurately, the 12 characters), complete with horrible Boston accents. Really, it was funny if you were there.

It was past midnight before everyone left, and once the last car had pulled out of the driveway, we learned that Finley and Owen weren't the only family members who rocked the matching flannel Christmas pajamas...

Grammy and her Granddog, Maisey, in her new Snuggie (courtesy of Grammy... who else):

The eight of us were up for quite a while opening presents and stockings... it was 2am when the last glass of Ranucci had been poured, and we decided we should all head to bed, realizing the munchkins would soon be up, looking for Santa (who was surely going to be a bit hungover)...