Family Christmas Party 2011

Every year my mom's side of the family gets together for Christmas. I love it! Ever since I was a little kid, and understood Christmas parties, this has been one of my favorite things to look forward to each and every year! My mom has a lot of siblings so it's really fun because there are a lot of cousins to play with and I just feel really close with that side of the family! Anyway, we decided to change things up a bit this year, and we did a white elephant game. When I was little, little, we had Santa come and give us gifts. He'd have us sing songs and we'd each get a turn to sit on his lap. After a while, we started having Grandpa hand out the gifts and we'd tell everyone something that child has accomplished that year. And now we're doing something different. All the kids are older, except for a few (like baby!)

We put all the gifts on the table, and then we each got a number 1 through however many there was and we'd take turns. The first person opened up the gift they chose, and showed everyone then the second person could either take that gift, and the person they took it from could open a new gift, or the second person could pick a new gift to open, and so forth. So if you had a high number, the better chance of stealing someone's gift. After everyone had a gift, we set the timer for 5 minutes, and we sent dice around and you rolled for double's and if you got double's you could steal someone else's gift. But if you liked your gift, then you could pass. It was awesome! Tons of screaming, and gifts being thrown, and it was just fun :) I got a coin counter that was digital, so that was pretty cool :) And then we had a "live" nativity scene. We had all the little cousins act it out and then we sang Away In A Manger and Silent Night together. Then we had my aunt read a wonderful story. It's called, I Believe In Santa... and it talks about how Santa is a symbol of Christmas and Christ is what Christmas is about... so believing in Santa is believing in Christ. It was such a cute story! :) I had so much fun and I can't wait until next year!