You have to put a shm&m in your schnoze...
Christmas was amazing.
I was nervous because all of the conflicts, but it ended up being pretty perfect.
On Sunday we had my mom's side of the family over for the annual Christmas Gift Exchange. Normally, when we host a family get together the stress of preparation is overwhelming and the fun of the party itself is lost, but for this one, it surprisingly wasn't. Maybe that was because we didn't have any time to leave it until the last minute, since we weren't home Friday or Saturday, we started cleaning earlier in the week, and it was all spread out? Whatever the reason...it really helped. The gift exchange went very well...everyone seemed to get the gifts the wanted. The boys were a little cranky about having to wait until all of the women opened their gifts, but in the end everyone was happy. And the revealing of The 2008 Wille Calendar was a success. A couple years ago, my aunt and uncle created a calendar with a bunch of family pictures. Since then, we have all worked together to make a calendar, different people/families making their own page/month, and then it is revealed in it's final product during the gift exchange. It was a lot of fun to see all of the different pages. There seemed to be a bit of a theme this year of cutting and pasting everyone's face into a picture. I did November...and I decided to put the faces of each of the family members on the body of a turkey, my aunt did December and she put everyone's face on the body of an elf (from elfyourself.com), and my cousin did April and she put ppl's faces in rain drops. It was a pretty awesome calendar. It was just a nice casual get together.
On Christmas Eve, my Grandma came over and we opened gifts while everyone was all together and then had a lovely Christmas dinner. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and enjoying our Christmas gifts.
Then on Christmas day we all went to church together. Then after having some breakfast, we packed up the car and headed to my Grandma's house. We had dinner at 4ish, the grandkids did the dishes, and then we sang happy birthday to my great grandma, who turned 95 this year! and had dessert. The best part of the night though, was at the end when my cousins and my siblings decided to play a slightly altered version of spoons, renamed schnoze. It was the funniest thing I have seen and everyone was cracking up. It was especially nice, since lately a lot of family parties have ended on a very dull note, with many of the cousins falling asleep or watching a random football game. When we got home I decided to watch Stranger than Fiction with my mom, who slept through most of it, and then I went to bed so that I could come to work bright and early this morning!
Christmas was lovely....lots of wonderful family time....I'm exhausted, but very content.
I hope you all had an equally splendid Christmas!
I was nervous because all of the conflicts, but it ended up being pretty perfect.
On Sunday we had my mom's side of the family over for the annual Christmas Gift Exchange. Normally, when we host a family get together the stress of preparation is overwhelming and the fun of the party itself is lost, but for this one, it surprisingly wasn't. Maybe that was because we didn't have any time to leave it until the last minute, since we weren't home Friday or Saturday, we started cleaning earlier in the week, and it was all spread out? Whatever the reason...it really helped. The gift exchange went very well...everyone seemed to get the gifts the wanted. The boys were a little cranky about having to wait until all of the women opened their gifts, but in the end everyone was happy. And the revealing of The 2008 Wille Calendar was a success. A couple years ago, my aunt and uncle created a calendar with a bunch of family pictures. Since then, we have all worked together to make a calendar, different people/families making their own page/month, and then it is revealed in it's final product during the gift exchange. It was a lot of fun to see all of the different pages. There seemed to be a bit of a theme this year of cutting and pasting everyone's face into a picture. I did November...and I decided to put the faces of each of the family members on the body of a turkey, my aunt did December and she put everyone's face on the body of an elf (from elfyourself.com), and my cousin did April and she put ppl's faces in rain drops. It was a pretty awesome calendar. It was just a nice casual get together.
On Christmas Eve, my Grandma came over and we opened gifts while everyone was all together and then had a lovely Christmas dinner. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and enjoying our Christmas gifts.
Then on Christmas day we all went to church together. Then after having some breakfast, we packed up the car and headed to my Grandma's house. We had dinner at 4ish, the grandkids did the dishes, and then we sang happy birthday to my great grandma, who turned 95 this year! and had dessert. The best part of the night though, was at the end when my cousins and my siblings decided to play a slightly altered version of spoons, renamed schnoze. It was the funniest thing I have seen and everyone was cracking up. It was especially nice, since lately a lot of family parties have ended on a very dull note, with many of the cousins falling asleep or watching a random football game. When we got home I decided to watch Stranger than Fiction with my mom, who slept through most of it, and then I went to bed so that I could come to work bright and early this morning!
Christmas was lovely....lots of wonderful family time....I'm exhausted, but very content.
I hope you all had an equally splendid Christmas!