Well this year we did things mostly the same but also a little different. Be prepared for lots of pics! Some of the pics of the food aren't the greatest but my stepbro( Doug) came by & he had to leave before we actually were ready to eat so Holly & I made him a "to go" plate with a little bit of everything.
First off for the dinner we decided to do an Italian theme....
Mom made her famous lasagna....Mmmmm Mmmmm (this was quite a treat)
and you cant have lasagna without garlic toast (dad & Barb brought this)
Holly stopped by Junction Square Pizza and picked up some of their yummy "antipasta salad"Now for a family who loves things homemade, I know this may seem weird to by a premade salad but this is one thing that a homemade version just doesn't compare. another example is Texas Roadhouse rolls,lol!!
I of course being the "dessert queen" made dessert. Sticking to the "italian theme" I made tiramisu (an italian coffe flavored dessert), its not very sweet but man is it rich!
and this family, who has chocolate in our blood, can't have a get together of any kind without some form of chocolate dessert, so I made what they call "texas sheet cake", I have never made this before. It was pretty good but I think most everyone prefers my "secret" recipe chocolate cake over this.
Now for the people.... Holly & her kids, JJ & Jodi, Dad & Barb, Mom & Joe, Doug for a brief period of time, Me & my kids. Sad news was that David, although he told his boss a month & a half ago that he would work on this day but neede to be off by 6pm, got called out about 3:30 in the afternoon. Guess where he had to go... Wyoming! I was a little upset about this because he had to leave shortly after he was called & it was to be an overnighter. The roads were messy so he had to go the loooong way. So needless to say he missed out on all of this:(JJ & his girlfriend Jodi, I think this is pretty serious, she is such a sweetie too!
I just have to post this pic cuz anyone who has ever been around Elle knows she does NOT like men (except her daddy & for some reason she absolutely LOVES David). Anyhow she has never liked JJ, when he is around she will hide or cling to anyone and everyone but she actually went right to him so I had to get proof.
Dad and Barb... I was having trouble getting a pic of them to turn out cuz the lighting & the flash kept reflecting off their glasses. This was the best one I got.
Mom & Joe, honestly I told them to stand together & pretend they love eachother but for some reason this is as close as they got and it was even harder to get them to halfway smile
And Holly, she will probably be mad at me for posting a picture of her but she will get over it,lol!
Present time!Present time! open the present, see whats inside! Some of the kids decided to wear gift bags on their heads, just being silly.
Elle, Kaden, Jada & Ty's friend Johnny
Before we did the white elephant we let the kids open their gifts, thats another thing we did differently this year. Instead of everyone bringing gifts for the kids, which was a bit overwhelming last year, dad & Barb brought a smaller gift & little goodiebags for each of the kids. It worked out much better, they got a gift to keep them occupied and they will still have gifts from everyone to open on Christmas morning.
WOW, amazing Elle is showing her gift to grandpa
here's Elle a little later after her sugar rush began to wear off, the girl can eat!!
Kaden with his new speed racer car, he is super excited about this whole christmas thing, he's not sure what to think of it all, but he is enjoying the decorations, lights, music,etc.
Jada & Hailey each got a snowglobe/musicbox
Keanan got a car
Ty, the gift is has in his hands is actually David's gift that he ended up with from the white elephant. Ty had the opportunity to bring a gift & participate but he changed his mind about it at the last minute...maybe next year he will.
OK onto the white elephant gift exchange... for those of you who have never done this it is a BLAST! Everyone who wants to participate brings a gift (we do $15-$20). We all draw a # out of a hat (or in our case a bowl). The person who gets #1 obviously goes first. He/She picks one of the gifts & opens it, simple enough right? Well the fun part begins with the people to follow. We go in numerical order and each person when it is their turn can either pick an unopened gift or they can choose to "steal" a gift from somebody who has opened theirs. If they steal then the person they stole from can either pick a new gift or steal from another person. We put a limit of 2 steals on our game so the 3rd person to get the gift gets to keep it.
Dad got #1, he opened an M&M dispenser & a bag of M&Ms
Holly opened a chocolate fondue set & a smores hot choclate set
JJ opened a foot massager & box of chocolate covered cherries
Ty (in Davids place) opened a car care kit
Jodi opened a set of travel mugs, blanket & neck pillow
Barb opened a bath & body works set of bodywash, lotion & one of those puffy body scrubbers
at this point I'm starting to get a little worried that nobody is going to steal & this little game is gonna end pretty quick without much excitement. Then.....
Mom stole Barbs gift so
Barb picked a new one & got a plastic puzzlebox with a 20 dollar bill in it
Then Joe stole the M&M dispenser from dad
Dad stole the car care kit from Ty
So Ty opened another gift... a heated neck massager
Now its my turn, yes I'm last & so much to choose from plus there is still one unopened gift. Well I was worried that it might be the crockpot that Barb brought last year and ended up taking home with hercuz well nobody wanted a crockpot,lol. So I stole the foot massager from JJ, He told us all that world war 3 was gonna start & he stole from Holly (who really wanted the fondue & smores sets) Well Holly decided enough was enough & picked the final unopened gift which turned out to be another car care kit!! She begged & pleaded with JJ to trade & he wasn't budging.
This was a blast & for us its a nice way for everyone to get a gift & not have to spend a tone of money trying to buy something for everyone. I think this is a tradition we will definetly try to keep going for years to come.
All in All it was a very pleasant night except for the fact that my hubby wasn't present:( Next year I think he will just request the day off so he doesn't risk getting called out again & missing a family gathering.
These last 2 pics are of Holly, JJ & I with our mom & then with our dad. Very rare!
By the way as JJ & Jodi were walking out the door, he found it in his heart to trade with Holly so she got what she wanted! It's just a brother/sister thing!
1 comment:
I love the family pics! I haven't seen everyone in forever! Miss you guys!
Post a Comment