New Year's Eve!

Our 2nd Annual New Year's Eve Party!

We met 8 other people for dinner at Dos Amigos--mmm, delicious!
Then we headed over to the Howard's Office to play games, Eat some More-some really delicious appetizers and snacks, and go on a scavenger hunt!!

Some of The LIST:

Rub a Bald Man's Head, Hug a Stranger, Pictures of: a fire hydrant, a car, a man wearing pink, cleaning a stranger's windshield, an out of state license plate, a stranger doing the Captain Morgan Stance with the Team, holding a stranger off the ground, receipt for 50c worth of gas, graffiti on a business, team in a bathroom stall, piercings (NOT ears), someone walking a dog, a bird bath, someone over 70 with their ID! And the list went ON!

The Scavenger Hunt List was made by a Great Friend of mine-there were 38 items on the list. The Rules were: You have to record your finds with a camera, at least one member of the team had to be in the picture-unless otherwise stated on the list, and we had a time limit (this yr's limit was 1 1/2 hours). We had to contented with 6 inches of fresh snow over the old stuff from the past few weeks (in some areas we were wading through over a ft of snow)!!

The Results: 34-29 Wives! Of course!!!

We won't go into the traffic, and a few incidental laws that were violated, especially since one of the team members is employed by the PD! shhhh!

The kids tried to stay up until midnight--don't think they made it!

Christmas Traditions!

We ("we" being Mary's Family) have always celebrated Christmas starting on Christmas Eve. We have lasagna for dinner (we tried a Turkey Dinner one year, instead of the Lasagna and it just was NOT the same!) After torturing the kids by doing the dinner dishes and chatting a bit, while they bounce off the ceiling Waiting and Waiting to get to those presents!! We FINALLY open Family Presents!!

It starts out nice and organized-one present to everyone, open it, see what everyone got, then pass out another one to each person. After about 3 or 4 'rounds' it just becomes useless and it's make your pile of presents and rip them open!!

Whew!

Christmas Morning! The kids, amazingly enough, didn't get up until 7 (mom and dad were SO happy with that hour!) They got a pretty decent haul to add to their pretty decent haul the night before!

Nintendo DSs, DS games, Wii Games, PlayStation Games, Clothes, Lego Sets, Zhu Zhu Pets, Clothes, an iPod, Bakugan, and lots more! Mom & Dad were ready for a nap by 7:30 (Slept until 10:30)!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 2009

December gets Super Busy!
Starting with the Festival of Trees-local clubs, churches, individuals decorate trees, display them at this function-the trees (and wreaths, gingerbread houses, donated gift baskets, etc...) are silent auctioned over 4-5 days. The schools, dancing studios, etc... perform on one of the nights!

Sophie and Katy clogging!

Another night is Katy's Band Concert. We were given the pleasure of sitting through the 5-6th Grade Band playing 4/5 songs, the 7th Grade Band playing 4/5 songs (Katy's Band), and the 8th Grade Band playing 4/5 songs! What Beautiful Music!?!

A younger Brother's take sitting through all of these bands! Aren't brothers wonderful!!

The Charter School the kids attend produced a Christmas Program, performed an Another night this month! The kids/classes sang, performed readings, skits, played instruments-the recorder and the harmonica, and danced (Ben had some MOVES!!-the Robot, Travolta's Stayin' Alive, the twist and more)!

Here is a video of Our Ben's Dance Moves!

Who Knew!!

And, in the middle of all of this excitement, Denny got his braces off!!! (We were quoted 12-18 months-Denny had them on for 23 months!) Katy was jealous that her Dad got his braces off before she did! (He did get them 9 months before she got hers!!)