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Sunday, December 19

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Roy, his mother Barb and sister Mary.

Left to Right: Zach (Grandson wannabe. He is dating Gloria), Jesse, Josh, Ian, me, Jordan and Nate.

As we were waiting for a few people to arrive and putting the finishing touches on the serving table, I found myself standing between two grandsons Josh and Jordan. I asked Deb to get my camera – then invited the other grandsons to join us. 🙂 I must be shrinking. I am beginning to look small.

Everyone in our family knows what it means when Grandpa rings this bell. They come from all corners of the house, because they know it is time to eat.

We had a fairly small group this year (23) because some came two weeks earlier – and there were several who were not able to come to either.

I tried to get everyone in one shot but couldn’t quite do it. This time I got Roy on the far left but missed Jere and Jesse on the right.

Nathaniel and Abby’s family was arriving late, so there were 5 missing in these shots.

I almost got everyone. I can see Jere and Jesse on the right and Roy’s arms on the left. 🙂

Cerwin must have been saying something funny.

Prayer for the meal

Dessert table.

If you missed the main food spread, go back to the previous post of this meal.

Cookies, cake and cheesecake

Lydia made this delicious cranberry cake.

Enjoying the meal.

Jasmine was fascinated by the hanging snowman decoration.

Looks like she may have had mocha punch. 🙂

Anthony came as King Ahasuerus (Queen Esther’s husband). He told me, “To be a king, I needed a crown, a robe and of course a ring.”

We never know who he will be when he arrives at our house. He has a creative imagination.

After cleanup we projected a video on the garage wall of the Singing Contractors version of Joy to the World – a reminder of the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

When the song finished, we showed a series of slides – starting with our grandparents wedding pictures then our wedding picture that featured all four sets of grandparents. Following that there were lots of pictures of our children and grandchildren when they were young. I also featured a few slides of those who married into the family, plus our great grandchildren.

When the slides were finished, we played Now-You-Have-it-Now-You-Don’t with a large foam dice. We need foam, because it may be thrown at someone instead of rolled. 🙂

Everyone chose a random gift from the floor. We had enough gifts so there were still several left on the floor.

The first round was to get acquainted with the gifts. The dice had choices like – pass 3 right – pass 2 left – take someone’s gift and give them yours – put your gift on the floor and take another one from the floor.

During the second round, the next dice had four keeps and two pass 2 right or pass 1 left. Each “keep” gave them a choice of taking from any available gift on the floor or on someone’s lap. The chosen gift was then placed under their chair so others knew it was no longer available.

When the second round was finished there were four people who hadn’t rolled a “keep.” They got to choose a gift from what was left.

We love celebrating Christmas with our family.