The Last Christmas Party

Christmas was not over, at least not in our house.  We hosted our last party on Saturday, which was the perfect excuse to leave the decorations up! 

This party was with our friends who are family the Klimek’s.  They live about 2 hours away and have schedules like ours-busy!  So, our time together is always short and too far between, but quality when it happens. 

The kids immediately found their groove playing, while the adults mulled around eating and drinking and chatting.

We’re way girl heavy in this group!  The 3 of us girls all went on to have girls of our own!

My Aunt Sally and Uncle Erik have a gift and love for hosting.  I am always willing to have people over, but I’m not so much into the presentation.  As I was laughing about the Chinette I actually served dinner on, I looked over to notice that Mark had pulled the big trash can from garage into the kitchen!  That’s so us.  I can totally appreciate the work that goes into putting on a well presented meal, I just don’t have the desire for that!  We’re more like “come as you are, eat as we are”.  I’m proud to say no one left hungry;)

 

We did away with gifts a few years ago, but my mom brought something for everyone anyway.  Bracelets for the kids, and wall art for the grown up kids.  The kind where you make your last name with pictures taken of things in nature that look like letters.  She let us pick our own frames and letters and will order them later!

At one point we couldn’t find the kids!  They were being awfully quiet and were no where to be seen!  Low and behold I found them in my closet on Sof’s little mattress.  I knew that would be a favorite spot once they discovered it!

We always end with a game of LCR.  It’s a dice game played with 3 dollar bills each.  It’s a riot, and the winner ends up with quite the pot of money!

We thought for sure Nan was going to win, because she had so many dollars piled up!

You just never know though, and the dice said otherwise.  In the end my mom took home the winnings!

The curly blond in the pink sweater…that’s Grace.  She married into our “family”, but blended in beautifully from the start. 

She’s been recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is facing a double mastectomy in February.  She has a brilliantly positive attitude about it, and even thinks of how it affects her daughter and husband before herself.  We’ll be praying and supporting in any way we can from now until she is whole and well and cancer free.  We love you Grace  

Like always, we had a great time, and we were so thankful everyone was able to get there!  We had been forecast from some really bad weather that night and the next day.  Everyone left just before dark, but had pretty bad drives home!  Everyone made it though and we were together!