One of the days I look most forward to is our annual christmas party. This tradition started back in 2005 when my friend, Whitney and I decided to decorate my parent's basement {typical hangout quarters for our friends} and man... we went ALL out! We had lights touching every wall and along the railing coming down the stairs. It was loud and beautifully perfect! Being in college, we decided it would be fun to do a white elephant exchange instead of spending $$ on a real gift. Oh my goodness... every year the gifts get better or return for a round 2 visit.
We have had anywhere up to 40 people attending our party in a given year. It is so wonderful to have some of our close friends and family under the same roof for a few hours. There is so much laughter and catching up on life since the last gathering. This year was no exception... we had a blast!
Everyone brings a snack or dessert to share and we ALWAYS have an abundance of goodies... and our friends can COOK!
So we always have a great time during the gift exchange/stealing. Always very entertaining!
We usually play a game after the gift extravaganza is over. This year we played a couple of great games! First we played telephone pictionary - if there are 10 players than each player has a stack of 10 pieces of paper and they number them 1-10 in the corner. We decided to do a christmas theme, so everyone wrote on the top piece of paper a phrase or word that had to do with christmas. It could be a person, a place, phrase from a song/movie or whatever they wanted to create that deals with christmas. Once everyone is done writing their phrase, everyone passes their stack of paper to the person on their left. Everyone looks at the phrase and then puts that piece of paper at the bottom of the stack. You them must draw a picture on page 2 to describe the phrase on the previous piece of paper. Once everyone is done then pass the stack of paper to the left. You will see a a drawing and will need to put that drawing on the bottom of the stack and write what you think the phrase is suppose to be on page 3. You continue to pass the stacks of paper around the circle alternating picture/phrase/picture/phrase etc. The round ends when there are no more pieces of paper in the stack, you should end with your original stack. We always go around 1 by 1 and go through each page of the stack to see where the phrases were taken by the end of the ground. By far one of our favorite games... it is hilarious every single time!
We also play a game I've heard called several names... basically it is charades however there are 3 rounds and different rules for each round. Everyone writes 2-3 christmas oriented items/people/phrases on pieces of paper and folds them and puts them into a bowl. There are 2 teams, and the first round whoever is up can use words, sounds and gestures to describe the word or phrase. Once the bowl is emptied then all of the pieces of paper go back into the bowl and round 2 begins. During round 2 you can only use gestures to describe the phrases to the team. During round 3 only 1 word can be used to describe the item. It is always entertaining as well!
We had our Launch annual christmas party on the 13th and MUCH fun was had. Wish I would have taken pictures!
We had our Launch annual christmas party on the 13th and MUCH fun was had. Wish I would have taken pictures!
Scott and I went to my company's christmas party on the 14th and had a great time with our cousins! We are super close with Brian and Jess {love you guys!} and Brian and I work for the same company but we hardly ever see one another since our organization has nearly 10K professionals.
We always celebrate with Jamie and Greg as well! They are the couple that we seriously rest so well with :) Our friendship is so natural it is so beautiful. We get together every 5 weeks or so and we have a blast just relaxing and enjoying each other.
We made sugar cookies... and may or may not have made the icing a little runny but didn't care. I may or may not have sprinkled the heck out of the cookies as well :) Hey... they were still amazing!
We went to our church's annual christmas eve service which is by far one of my favorite traditions ever!
Afterwards we headed to Scott's aunts house to celebrate with his dad's side of the family over some yummy food and great conversations. Then we headed to have the immediate family christmas with Scott's family which is always a good time. :)
Christmas morning we woke up and went over to my parent's house as usual for my mom's amazing homemade cinnamon rolls. This year was probably the best they've been since I can remember. Yuuuum! We get them once a year... so we savor every ounce. We opened gifts then headed down to my mom's side of the family for the afternoon in southern Missouri.
On Thursday after Christmas I got to see my cousin, Hannah. She and I are the sisters we never had.... more on her later - don't have enough time or space on this post to tell you about this amazing lady.
Scott and I road up to Kirksville, MO with Kyle {Scott's brother} to spend time with his mom's side of the family the Saturday after Christmas. It was so good to see his family! Scott's cousin, Ethan, brought his wonderful girlfriend, Rebecca and she started the bow on the head... and we went with it.
Next weekend we will finish our string of christmas celebrations by heading to grandmother and graddad's house to have christmas with my dad's side of the family. There won't be many that are able to make it, but it will be a sweet time. I'm looking forward to it!
I love this time of year... getting to catch up with those you don't get to see on a regular basis yet love so much.
What has been the highlight of this season in your world?
Hope you all have a safe and happy new years eve!! I'm sure enjoying the snow today!
I hear ya - I heart Christmastime too! I love all of the get-togethers, the church services, the decorations. Everything is just so warm and cozy and filled with love.
ReplyDeletePS - Your post makes me want to host a Christmas party next year! I think we just might have to!