Family Weekend Number One = Success

Well, we officially survived our first crazy weekend of family holidays. Friday night we drove up to Minneapolis and stayed with some friends before meeting up with my dad's family on Saturday to do our Christmas celebration. We even set aside time for a trip to IKEA (looove IKEA) Saturday morning, but a darn accident put a stop to that. Early Sunday morning (after a late night Saturday) we drove to Mitchell SD to celebrate Christmas with my mom's family. And suffice to say, we pretty well crashed when we finally got home Sunday night.
And, on an exciting note, I even remembered to take my camera with me to document our family fun! But did I think to take a picture of the massive brackets my aunt made up for our Wii bowling, MarioKart, and dodgeball tournaments Saturday? Noooo. Did I pull out my camera to catch some of the hysterical action of my parents and other aunts and uncles struggle their way through MarioKart? Nooo. Did I document any of the cousin's crazy antics at the pool during adult swim? Of course not. Despite taking my camera, I left it packed safe and sound in my suitcase during the entire day on Saturday.
So, to make up for it, I made sure to take lots of pictures on Sunday. We went to the nursing home that my grandparents are living at and did some caroling for them and the other residents.

Here's a shot of Darrell and I taking a break from the singing (do you like how well I framed the Happy Holidays? Mad skills people, mad skills).

We opted to do a White Elephant gift exchange this year between all the cousins, aunts and uncles. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, everyone brings "a gift" from their home that they are looking to get rid of, all the gifts go on the table, and everyone draws a number. The first person can pick any gift, opens it, and then person number two can decide if they want to steal the first gift or open their own. Person three can steal either of the first two gifts or open their own. So on and so forth. There ended up being 24 of us playing, so there was quite a bit of random and useless stuff floating around and being stolen (coincidently, the most popular gifts to steal ended up being the ones with edible food. And yes, prefacing with edible is necessary). Once the game ended there was some under the table trading going on, and when all was said and done, this is what Darrell and I walked away with.

Not too shabby if you ask me. I also can't refrain from posting one of the adorable pictures I took of my cousin's sweet little girl. She was dancing around during the caroling, snacking on "affels" all afternoon, and generally smiling and giggling at everyone. I captured this picture while Darrell was busy making faces at her.

Isn't she just the cutest?


What little free time we have this week is going to be packed full of preparations for Family Weekend Number Two--pretty much the same story, but with different characters and set in Georgia! Praying for good weather and safe travels!