I survived!

BUNKO

My craziness started on Thursday with Christmas Bunko. I call it crazy only because it was one more thing on the list to do. We had "ugly sweater" bunko this year. Let me tell you, there are some UGLY sweaters out there! I was hoping Les would have posted her pics by now so I could steal them, but she had a few ERRORs. Anyway, it was a super fun night and I even got to be the big winner and take my gift home with me. This time I would have been happy taking just about anything home with me, good stuff! I didn't get home till almost 11:30. I sat and talked with my friend in the car for while when I dropped her off and she gave me the nicest compliment. I won't share cuz it feels weird, but it's something I have been working on personally and she noticed! It was really sweet.

WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY

Friday was the true craziness. I was in charge of our Ward Christmas Party that night. Lucky for me, my big kids were off school that day so I had lots of help putting things together. What didn't go so well was that I thought I would just go buy some tablecloths before we went to the church, but....what I didn't know, is that there were none at any store!! I spent about three hours driving around trying to find some. Very frustrating. Not too mention that I had a little run in with the guy at Dollar Tree about a return and my kids were stuck at the church starving the whole time I was gone. It was a wee bit stressful. We got it all put together with about an hour to spare.

The party went really well. There were tons of people, not hardly enough room to get them all in the gym. We ran out of food (everyone got something) which is actually a good thing, but we could have used about a hundred more doughnuts! Santa came and was so kind to sit for and hour and a half talking to kids and taking pictures. Chelsey was my photographer for the night and I totally forgot to get her dinner. Sorry!! The program was cute and I think everyone went home happy. As always, clean up went quickly and everyone was helpful.

After, we met with a few of our friends to try and figure out when we can get this cruise scheduled. We were hoping for earlier than later, but it's looking like summer now. Ah well, it'll come. It's always fun to gather with good friends for whatever reason!

SMITH FAMILY CHRISTMAS

On Saturday, we had our annual Smith Family Christmas at Kyle and Kristi's house. It was a little complicated this year due to busy schedules, but we squeezed it in. We ate ourselves silly on 7 layer dip, cheese ball and veggie trays before we got to the gift exchange. Once everyone arrived, the grand kids all opened their gifts from each other. Such fun to see them all so excited all at the same time! A little later, the teenagers did a dice game to exchange gift cards. They are not nearly as excitable and ended the game early cuz no one wanted to trade anymore.

Grandma Smith brought out the new tradition of chimes. Each person gets a chime and stick and we play Christmas songs with them. The little ones don't last long, but it's fun for awhile. We didn't have a program this year due to time restraints and well, it just didn't happen. This party is one of my kids favorite things all year!

Katy got a Pinkalicious doll...I think she likes it!

Bo got a remote control car which has been played with a lot!

Dalin was the lucky recipiant of a mentos bomb which requires Diet Coke. I thought I was getting lucky! He also got an airplane.

Rhett got a book about the Human Body. At first he wasn't very excited, but later they spent a lot of time looking through it and playing some of the little games it has.

Brooklyn got an adorable box with a key to hold all her important stuff. If any of you are familiar with SNL, you know what they would say she could put in it!

SUNDAY

Sunday was a nice day of rest. I spent the morning getting a little organized from the crazy few nights before. We had our big breakfast, at which Dalin stateD.."I think the best meals are when the whole family is here!". I think he's right. We had our Christmas program at church which is always one of my favorites. After church I got a short nap, then up to fix dinner. No big family dinner today since we were just together last night. This means all day jammies for me! We had a few friends stop by with treats and spent the evening wrapping gifts and playing games. It was a great day.