Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

The moon is right
The spirits up

We're here tonight

And that's enough

Simply having a wonderful Christmastime

Simply having a wonderful Christmastime

The party's on
The feelin's here 
That only comes
This time of year

Last Christmas Eve I decided that we needed to revamp our normal Christmas Eve activities! Everyone agreed to my proposals, so this year was definitely different and very fun.  

Throughout the evening each of us shared a memory.  Monica told us the sweet story of her last Christmas with her father.  I reminisced about the holiday in Lonoke.  George described that amazing decoration his Dad made that created a kaleidoscope inside a large wreath.  Matt remembered acting out the nativity story in Provo with Uncle John being the donkey.  He recalled how happy he was when he was finally big enough to wear one of Tammy's costumes from the Shakespeare Festival.  Scott talked about Christmas in Arkansas and how much he loved being there with family. We all laughed remembering funny things Aunt Mary and Grandma had said.  Johnny shared several experiences he remembered with the family, including one I'd never heard before about the harrowing ride he and Matt took on a tandem bike in Salzburg.  Sometimes it is better NOT to know. I didn't take any photos of these tender moments.

We interspersed the memories with some 'minute to win it' games. We even had score cards!

Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Toss - Don't worry no real hot chocolate was involved. 

It was harder than it looked!

Next year I need to make Isabella a score card as she wanted to participate in every game. 

 When throwing them all the way down the table proved too difficult, she had a good solution!

Christmas Tree Stack 

 Everyone scored on this one, well except for me! 

Look at that concentration!

 Yep, Isabella wanted to try this one too!

Snowman Slide  - The Easiest one

Isabella loved this one. 

As you can see from her expression, she loved knocking them all down.

Snowball Fight was too wild and crazy and difficult so I didn't even try to take photos. It involved bouncing ping pong balls into a bowl while the rest of us threw cotton balls to try and get your ball off target!   

George beat Scott out for the grand prize by a single point. 

For dinner we had fondue which proved to be a hit.

Traditionally when eating fondue, if you drop your food into the common pot you have to kiss the person next to you.   Matt and Scott and I came up with some other 'stunts' if food dropped off your fork.  We wrote them on slips of paper and if you were the one who dropped, you had to pick a paper and perform the stunt. 

One stunt was to kiss the person to your right.

Another was to kiss the person to your left. 

Another was to wear reindeer ears and a Rudolph nose. If you are wondering, that is sparkling cider in his glass. Yes, the instigators of the stunts had to perform them!  Ha Ha!

We also made a craft.  This has been a part of our traditions for the last 8 years.  

I love it.  The boys tolerate it!

But we made some cute ornaments! 

George recited, "Christmas Eve on the Dessert", which reminded us of Grandpa Lewis's yearly recitation of this poem.  Then we had chocolate from our chocolate fountain.  Yummy! 

I think traditions are kind of like friends, "Make new traditions but keep the old - One is SILVER and the other GOLD!