New Year's Eve Euchre

Ben and I hosted a euchre night at our house to celebrate New Year's Eve. I made lots of snacks!



Sugared cranberries.



We had champagne cosmopolitan cocktails! Cheers!



Let the games begin!



Bob and Ben.



Check out Summer's new chin piercing! (PSYCH! It's a magnet.)



Phil is a new euchre player, so J and Megan were giving him tips.



Smile!!



Bob and I won all the games!!! We all played three games, and we won all of ours.



ULTIMATE CHAMPIONS.

Christmas Continues

We celebrated Christmas with Ben's family today. I like it when the celebrations stretch out because it means double the holiday magic! We started things off with a lox and bagels smorgasbord brunch at Cheryl's house!



Mmm!



Then we headed out for a hike at Sell's Park! This ended up being a pretty intense hike, we were out there for over two hours! It was a beautiful day, but we got chilly by the end.









You can see Moss, Iris, and Zoey way down there!



Pretty trees.



Christmas hike!



Zoey leading the pack.



Cave!



Brrr.



Inspecting the rock formations.






That evening, we met back out at Cheryl's house for more family time. We Skyped with Yang in New York City!



Merry Christmas, Yang!



Bye!!!!



Bah Humbug.



Jon brought rolls!!!!! LOOK at them! Hellllloooooooooooo!



Cheryl made ham and macaroni and cheese, and Kayla made her green bean casserole! Jon brought soup, too!



The dogs were POOPED from the afternoon hike.



Totally zonked.



So was Vana!



Zonked!



After dinner, we did the White Elephant Christmas Exchange! That pimp hat originally was a gift from Dad to Ben, and it has certainly made the rounds at family Christmas parties over the years.



Kayla opened the pimp hat, but Cheryl stole it!!



This dancing bunny was the most coveted gift of the evening. Kayla opened it first, and then Vana stole it...



... and then I stole it for the third and final steal! YES!!! Obviously that bunny was meant to be mine.



White Elephant!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We got together this morning at Mom and Dad's house to continue the holiday festivities. Kate kept us ON TRACK! Here she is distributing stockings.



Getting into it!



What could THOSE presents be?!



Uncle Ben got one too!



YAY!! BOWS AND ARROWS!






I got a beautiful unicorn bow for my hair.



Dad got Mom a Mini Jambox!



Ben and I got Mom and Dad the complete Seinfeld DVD set, but it didn't arrive in time for Christmas (even though the web site AND the customer service representative we contacted both guaranteed it would!!). We had to give them this drawing instead.



Kate got a DRUM SET!!



We took a break from present opening and had a breakfast casserole and fruit!



Mer also got the meat started for dinner. She made Sauerbraten!



Everyone wanted a turn on the drums.



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Eventually it was time for dinner! Mom made spaetzle.



Mmm! Look at that beautiful meat!






With sauerkraut, spaetzle, and the famous Ann Moneypenny salad.



Mmmmmmm! German feast!



Later that night, we played Headbandz. Each person wears a card on their head and has to try and guess who or what they are by asking questions. There were lots of laughs! And how timely, Uncle Mark got "Santa Claus"! Ho, ho, ho!


Merry Christmas!