Sunday, December 04, 2011

Merry Christmas Part 1

Yesterday, we celebrated Christmas with Ron's family at the Sand Run Metro Park.  The family rented this cabin for the party.



This was the third year in this cabin and it seems to really work well for everyone.  The cabin is beautiful with the wood burning stove it's also pretty warm.  The cabin also comes with bathrooms and a full kitchen plus all of the tables and chairs we need.  You can't ask for more than that!

Phil even puts on the suit and comes as Santa for the party.  Here is Santa showing up, brought of course, by his eight reindeer.  (see them on the dash??!)


The kids are always thrilled when Santa shows up!  He handed out the Christmas stockings which means that the party had begun.




This year, Bev and her daughter Amy and her daughter-in-law Amy cooked all of the food.  That was a crazy amount of work but the food was absolutely fantastic.  From the lasagna to the rigatoni and meatballs, I don't think there was much left.  We won't even talk about the dessert table!  That's what holidays are for - no diets and way too much great food.

The other thing holidays are good for is visiting with family. 




Then, there was Georgia, trying to convince Santa that she really WAS good all year!


And more family.




The day couldn't have gone better.  HUGE thanks go out to Bev, Amy and Amy for all the hard work they put in making this party such a success.  They showed up at the cabin early to get it decorated and get to work on the feast we enjoyed.

The weather was milder than it had been other years so that made the travel time a bit easier.  Everyone made it to the cabin and there was time for catching up and hugs and stories.  Like any good party, the place got pretty quiet once the food was set out!  Hey, we were too busy stuffing ourselves to make much noise!

A big hit of the party is always the white elephant gift.  This is where you regift something that you have that you don't want, or something that you have around the house, or something inexpensive.  We draw numbers and then in turn, you go to the table to choose a gift.  The next person in line then has the option to take a gift that has already been opened, or they go to the table to choose their own gift.  Some gifts show up year after year for the white elephant gift!

One yearly favorite is the butt/face towel.  One side is brown with "butt" written on it and the other side is white with "face" written on it.  For those people that get confused when they get out of the shower!  

You can receive a board like Tom did.  Here he is, taking it around to a few people trying to get ideas on what in the heck he's supposed to do with THIS!  I have a feeling it will be rewrapped and will show up at next year's white elephant gift exchange!



To Amy, who was lucky enough to get these crazy glasses!


It was a good day all around.  Too much fun and too much food.  No diets on Christmas, for sure!  We came home with a huge bounty of homemade goods and I plan on enjoying as much of it as I can. 

So, from our house to yours, Merry Christmas to all, and to all . . .  a good night.

3 comments:

Jim's Blog said...

Looks as though everyone had a wonderful family gathering. Good Cheer to All

Georgia said...

Wonderful idea with that cabin for Christmas. Great! I mmust look if here at us can also rented such a lovely cabin. Would be great to celebrate Christmas there instead of at home. So nobody is a guest and all can do whatever they want to do. I think it's much more relaxed this way. Great! Awesome pics!
Georgia

Anonymous said...

very nice pictures ^^