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Thursday, January 7, 2016

The Beginning of 2016

We had a really fun New Year's Eve celebration this year....even though Rainman had to work again(just like Christmas).  He .worked New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  He had 12 hour shifts both days, 8 to 8.  He got home about 8:45, took a nap until 11 and then joined us for a rushed bit of gaming and ringing in the new year, before heading to bed, so he could get up for work the next day.

We had a few extra partiers with us this year.  A-girls friend, E-man and his sister, R-girl, who is friends with L-girl were able to join us.  J-girl spent the night with her family, which I totally understand and while I was happy for her mom and dad, we missed having her with us.

We had our usual homemade pizza contest.



There ended up being a winner for presentation and a winner for taste.  Can you guess which was which?







We worked on a murder mystery puzzle and played games, like the mitt game, that my sister Karen told me about years' ago.  Even my teenagers love that this game has become a yearly tradition at our house.



Oh, I should tell you that somewhere between me taking pictures of the pizzas and this game....a few selfies and other pictures were taken by various children....who apparently had greasy fingers and touched the lens...so, the rest of my shots from our party will look like I did some sort of soft focus filter on them!


My sister, Karen, is also the queen of treasure hunts, so I decided to use some of her ideas and create a cryptogram filled treasure hunt for the kids.  Seriously, a lot of fun....again...even the big kids participated in this one (maybe not quite as gleefully as the littles, but they had fun too).  I will honest and say that I had a lot of fun coming up with the riddle like clues for all the hiding spots for the clues.

Loved this treasure hunt.  I had gotten some candy and popcorn tins from Aldi at an after Christmas sale that I used for my prizes.  Simple, cheap and super fun.

Our last "game" of the night was the game that we had done at Christmas too that we stole from the Hallmark movie (Very Merry Mix Up).  The one where you each write something nice anonymously about everyone else in the room and then read them aloud and try to guess who said it. (We actually had a good laugh when we realized half way through the game that L-girl was the only one writing with a red pen, so there ended up being no mystery about which ones she wrote!)  Rainman missed this one at Christmas, so, we waited until he got up from his nap so  he was able to do it this time too.

But, it was so awesome!  Really.  You should do this at some family gathering.  It is fun to see what things people come up with.  The sibling to sibling ones were a mix of super, laugh out loud, funny and sweet. Mine made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (especially the one from a teenager that said I throw fun and awesome parties)

Rainman had to keep explaining his because they kept coming off as mean, but he didn't intend them to be that way.  Things like "you are much smarter than I thought you would be"....or "you are the most gifted child I have ever seen"  I am chuckling just remembering the kids faces when those were read.

We were having so much fun with this game, that we suddenly realized that Ryan Seacrest had already started the countdown and we hadn't gotten our glasses of fake wine poured and handed out. The last seconds of the countdown was a mad rush of handing out glasses and pouring.  It was pure chaos, I tell you.  Chaos.  But, it was fun and loud and filled with laughing.  Plus, none of my glasses got broken, so....bonus.


This was finally the moment in my night that I realized something was up with my camera lens....but, it was too late!  I kept taking pictures, saying, everything looks sort of fuzzy.  Grrr....



It was so chaotic that I forgot to include myself in even one of the pictures, and we forgot to put on our New Year's hats, so here are the littles posing in them with the special sign S-girl made with her new beloved Spirograph she got for Christmas.

I am looking forward to seeing what 2016 has in store for us.  My word for the year is "pursue". So, we shall see.

Here is to a happy and blessed new year for all of us.

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