Christmas

Christmas this year was much less hectic than last year. We had our Christmas and gift exchange with Bradley's family a week early. This enabled us to spend a whole weekend with them instead of just one day. We like to do a gift exchange with that part of the family. In the past couple of years, we have done several different kinds of exchanges. We have drawn names and brought gift cards, but this years was my favorite: a white elephant board game exchange. I know this sounds incredibly nerdy, but I am not ashamed to say that both Brad and myself love playing games. We love to have people over or go to my parent's house and try to con people in to playing a new game. Brad's family loves games as well so the gift swap turned out great. We came home with the game that I took, Bezzerwizzer, and a game called Buzzword. After dinner we went outside to take a family picture!




On Christmas Eve, we traveled to Channelview to have Christmas with the Nelson side of my family. It is tradition in our family that on Christmas Eve, we eat "snack food." Do not be fooled by the causal name. We have a feast of different kinds of dips, appetizers, sandwhiches, and other tasty treats. After everyone is so full that they can hardly stay awake, we open presents. Because of how large our family is getting, we choose to do a white elephant gift exchange this year. This W.E. consisted of two parts: a $25 gift card swap and a $10 gag gift/present. The gift card exchange got a little heated, but the sparks really flew during the$10 exchange. I really wanted my gift to be the most popular gift, and I put a lot of thought into how I could make this happen. I had a lot of ideas, but I eventually thought of the one thing that would make a bunch of people ready to fight each other...a custom picture of the newest baby in our family, Halle. My dad opened the gift, and Dana, Halle's mom's eyes were like saucers. Her husband, Steve was next to steal and he grabbed the picture like it was a life preserver in the middle of a tropical storm. There was one steal left and the baby's grandmother had the next pick. We tried to get her to take it, but she decided that she couldn't be that mean. She picked another gift and Dana was next to choose so she stole from Steve to lock in their gift. It was a lot of fun, and I am already trying to decide what I will take when we do it this year!




We didn't spend Christmas with my dad's family until January. No turkey and potatoes for us this year. We were all sick of holiday food so we went to a Mexican buffet. It was DELICIOUS, and I didn't just think so because I was pregnant! :)